Is it normal to feel better turning one way?
 

Crazy question I know, but I have noticed that I prefer turning right to left. I don'w know why but the glider feels better when it is turning right to me. Or maybe its just my turns are better co-ordinated in that direction, who knows?

If anyone has experienced this before I would welcome your input!

Apart from that flying today was good, did some more circuit planning and landing exercises which are really making me feel that it is all starting to come together!

Would you, by any chance, be left-handed?

I'm the same! Can only stop to the right when I ski.

When I flew gliders, I always felt more 'on it' turning right, especially if I was showing off on wingovers, that kind of thing. I'm right handed & put it down to feeling more in touch with that hand - should mention I flew paragliders, so it was direct mechanical unassisted inputs, as it were.

Yes I'm left handed, why do you think this makes a difference? I obviously hold the stick with my right hand though!

I used to have a strong side. But I would always practice both, so now I'm equally bad on both sides. Seriously, my acro instructor would make me do a left roll for every right roll I did, and so on. I think what you feel is very normal and can be overcome.

-- IFMU

I was flying with an instructor on my Biannual (Biennial) flight and as I turned to line up I made a right turn on the runway.

He then asked if I was left-handed, and when I said I was he said that given a choice, left-handers tended to have a preference for a right turn.

Not scientific, not always the case and I won't defend this comment but generally I've found it is true.

As with IFMU, when I'm gliding, I use the clues to turn either way for thermalling, but if its a 50-50 call I'll probably turn right 80% of the time.

The initial rolling into a right turn might be more comfy because you are moving the stick closer to your shoulder rather than away from it.The initial rolling left might be a little more uncomfortable because you are extending rather than retracting your arm,once established in the turn it shouldnt really make much difference because the stick may well be centred or even 'holding off' the bank angle with slight opposite stick.
In a side by side glider - direction of turn can feel vastly different because you are either at the 'bottom' or 'top' or inside /outside.
But we all do have personal preferences about most things !!:ok:
Actually flying the glider eventually becomes second nature/instinctive and whether you end up turning L or R may well depend on who is above you in a thermal or where you think the best lift is and how to 'centre' into it.

Well... I am right handed but I found right turns in a glider slightly more comfy,perhaps partly because of what I said above.
I did prefer left hand circuits at one stage,but that may have been because of where I did my initial glider training.
Generally speaking (for gliding though) - I did not particularly care which way I was turning as long as I was going UP :ok:

For a given propeller rotation direction, turning one way is "easier" than turning the other way, because coordinated turns require a lot more rudder one way than the other way.

Also, obviously, sitting on the left, it is much more natural to turn left because one can see where one is going. This is no doubt why most turns in aviation (except enroute holds, and overhead joins at Panshanger...) are LH.

Everyone has a "chocolate" side whether they are flying, driving, skiing or riding a bike.

I'm right-handed, sit on the right hand side when flying and prefer left turns.

Cheers

Whirls

Everyone who flies gliders I have discussed this with has a favoured direction, and most of them prefer left. I have no idea if it's to do with being right-handed, which eye is dominant, or some other factor. Maybe it's a mix. One person said that whichever way they turned in their first thermal of the year set the pattern for the rest of it.

If people do prefer left turns...is it because they have done mostly LH circuits ??
I went through phases of preferences when inexperienced but as I said above - for various circumstances in a glider you sometimes have no choice which way you have to turn (thermal etiquette/centring in thermals etc).

Hi, Dan, good to hear from you again! With the progress you are making, you can look forward to some truly exciting exercises! (heh heh!)

As for left or right hand turns, it is important to feel happy turning either way, so practice plenty both ways, if anything, do more practice the less comfortable way. On a soaring flight, of course. Reverse turns are fun, as well, and very good practice.

When you are up there all by yourself, later this summer, and that glider over there is GOING UP, and you would like to share that thermal, safety and regulations require you to turn in the same direction.

Power chaps posting here, and motor gliders, and T21's have the problem of side by side seating - though friendlier, it does influence your choice of which way to turn, you can see a lot better from the LH seat doing left turns.

I'm sure I remember this being mentioned on one of those quality fly-on-the-wall docusoaps that the Beeb used to do, I think it was "Test Pilot", many eons ago. Apparently pilots in the Luftwaffe in WW2 picked up on this before we did, that when making an attack on an RAF aircraft, almost without exception they immediately broke to the left, and the German pilots were ready to match this, and carry through the attack.
For my own case, when I had a motorcycle, I could sling it into any left-hander without a thought, but on a right-hander, it was a bit first, then a bit more, Ooooh :eek:, straighten up then bank again, and so on round the corner. (Not every time, by any means, only when I made the mistake of thinking about it just before doing it, instead of just doing it.)
But it really was bad if (in a suitable place, large flat car park, etc.) I tried to control the bike at very low speed, below walking pace, as you see Police riders doing on T.V.) Do a left-hand circle, no probs. Right-hand circle, no hope!

somebody should do a poll on this here, something like:

I'm right handed and I prefer turns to the right
I'm right handed and I prefer turns to the left
I'm left handed and I prefer turns to the right
I'm left handed and I prefer turns to the left


For some reason I don't seem to be able to make polls on this forum

Thinks- Could it be to do with the rotation of the Earth? Even when we are detached from it, i.e. flying, our senses are tuned to wherever we grew up/live, or w.h.y?
What do our Antipodean cousins think on this. Any different "symptoms" than us Northern Hemisphere Wallahs?

It would be interesting to look into the psychology of this. I too prefer to turn to the right, but I am right handed (BTW - I hold the stick with my left hand so the close to shoulder idea doesn't necessarily work) and had put this down to also having a fear of depth (there was a thread discussing it here some time ago), and thus in turning right in a side-by-side cockpit I had assumed that it was due to having the bulk of the cockpit between me & the ground, whereas turning left I look straight out of the window at the earth below which I can find to be a tad unerving. When I saw you lines above, Lady Whirls II, I thought "Aha, a helicopter pilot who sits on the right hand side, so you then get the cockpit between you & ground on left hand turns"....case proven.

But then re-reading your post, you're right about the bicycle. I feel much happier turning right when I'm riding a bike so my whole theory collapses.

Anyway, must get some time flying a tandem seat & see what happens...most likely I'd get scared looking down on either turn :bored:

I'm right-handed and I don't have a marked preference turning either way, but (in my very limited experience) doing aeros I prefer rolling to the left - and I don't think this is entirely because the sighting device is on the left wing strut. Maybe it's because pushing the stick from right to left across my body is more natural than pulling the stick away to the right, but I naturally tend to look to the left first.

There's bound to be something brainular about it.

So far as I can discover, all glider pilots have a clear preference initially. From asking around at the club where I learned, roughly 70% of right-handers prefer turning left, 30 % the opposite. I'd guess for left-hander the proportions might be reversed.

There were lots of explanations offered, but none were especially convincing.

As Mary said, it is really important in the long run to learn to turn equally well both ways. Once I began cross-country flying I consciously practised this, and now am equally happy in either direction and my flight traces tend to show a rough 50:50 split between right-hand and left-hand thermals.

However, my first proper soaring flight of this year had me thermalling 70% to the right (my initial preference when I learned), so I guess that the learned indifference needs time to recapture.

As you're only a few weeks into learning, I'd say leave working on this for later - probably post-solo. If you start worrying about right turns, you'll probably lose the ability to turn left!