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as he is the only legal pilot on board and by gods heaven, has to sit left.
Nonsense. If that were the case every instructor would be sitting on the left then.
The flight manual will normally dictate were P1 sits. wish that old chestnut would go away."
This is an old wives tale and we did it to death here recently! I've never seen a flight manual which dictated where the P1 must sit. Certainly it's common (especially in tandem aircraft) for the manual to specify the seat to be used for solo flights but that's not the same thing as dictating where the aircraft commander must sit. If I fly a PA28 with a passenger I can chose to sit in the left or right, nothing to stop me!!
Sometimes a company Ops manual will stipulate who sits where but not the flight manual. Just one last thing; don't go siting in an unfamiliar seat without the appropriate training and experience. Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's smart!!
3 Point