Left or Right

[JP1]

Hi,

I was wondering for those right-handed pilots, who fly aircraft with a control column as opposed to a yoke, are you using your right or left hand in the circuit.

Effectively my first lesson was 12 or so circuits which I flew with with my right hand. However, since I am still learning the feel of the aircraft this was quite a high workload. Now the controls that I must use with my right hand, flaps and pitch control, entail a swap of hands just after TO at 200 ft or so and on finals again 400 or 500 feet. Of course this made the task of flying the circuit a little harder.

What do others do?

Thanks

[Sir George Cayley]

Discrimination alert !!!

I'm ambidextrous, what about me?

Left hand on the joy stick - right hand on the throttle.

If throttle on left hand wall of cockpit......

As above the nifty change when engine power change reqired.

Doing glide landings helps

Sir George Cayley

[FlyingForFun]

One hand on the throttle, the other hand on the yoke/stick. In most spamcans, flying from the left seat, this means left hand on the yoke/stick.

I don't know why, but I've never had any problems with this. I can quite happily swap between left and right seat, yoke and stick, throttle on the left or the right without having to think about it. But I know that others don't find it so easy, and the only advice really is to practice doing it correctly in your type of aircraft.

FFF
---------------

[tmmorris]

FFF

What happens when you stall?

I ask because on my conversion to T67 I tried LH throttle, RH stick, only to come a cropper on the stalls because I instinctively put my left hand forwards a bit (to break the stall) and my right hand forwards a lot (full throttle) - only it gave me a stonking dive and only a little extra power, resulting in a massive height loss.

Once the instructor had peeled himself off the canopy he suggested I stick to LH stick, RH throttle for the moment...

Tim

[Boy_phantom]

Originally Posted by tmmorris

FFF
What happens when you stall?
I ask because on my conversion to T67 I tried LH throttle, RH stick, only to come a cropper on the stalls because I instinctively put my left hand forwards a bit (to break the stall) and my right hand forwards a lot (full throttle) - only it gave me a stonking dive and only a little extra power, resulting in a massive height loss.
Once the instructor had peeled himself off the canopy he suggested I stick to LH stick, RH throttle for the moment...
Tim

I've done a lot of left and right flying. my instructor pointed out this same issue with the stall technique, but i must admit i didn't have any trouble at all.
My advice would be to concentrate on what your hands will be doing. I think its all about focus.

[tmmorris]

That's all very well in an artificial stall-practising scenario. I'm worried about what happens if I inadvertently stall and do the wrong thing.

Tim

[Lister Noble]

I'm right handed.
Learned too fly in PA28,held yoke with left hand everything else,throttle,mixture,flaps,trim,carb heat etc is on the right.
Just finished taildragger conversion in Super Cub.
Everything on the left so held stick with right hand.
It really didn't make any difference when flying,including stalls or taxiing.
Lister

[the dean]

its a strange thing but after a while whether your right or left handed does'nt seem to matter..though you may have a preference..

i'v flown various combinations over the years..throttle etc on the left wall so stick in the right hand...yoke in the left hand throttle in the right...and instructing yoke in the right hand throttle in the left..

does'nt seem to matter after a while..

you'll get used to it..