left or right............
 

Does anyone here have 'trouble' with left and right, ie. you want to do a steep turn to the right, but you actually turn to the left?
After about 4hrs of uneventful PPL training I had a discussion with my ever patient instructor (stoic lot those Dutch!) about this problem. Next time up........you guessed it.....I announce "Steep turn to the right"...lift the left wing a little to clear any traffic, repeat same on the right, then promptly roll 45' to the left:eek:

Now, without fail, I'm having to think twice if not three times about which way to turn.:(

What the f@@k is wrong with me?????

I read about it in a book called "The Naked Pilot", and seem to have poisoned my mind.

Help!!! any shrinks out there??

I have the same problem especially when 'she who must be obeyed' says "turn left" cos I usually turn right. In the car I tell people to point in the direction that they want to turn. Works great unless they're in the back seat :D

Many years ago at a small grass airfield near Calgary, a group of students was standing by the hangar on a completely calm evening watching a two seater glider maneuvering overhead prior to joining the circuit, when we heard a voice from on high proclaim "Not that left, the other left!"

When navigating in cars I often tell the driver to turn left when I mean right or v-v - most of my friends have cottoned on to this and double check with me before committing. After giving passing motorists directions to a pub or whatnot I often wonder whether I've sent them the wrong way!

I'm left handed - relevent to the problem?

Not a problem in my very limited flying experience - drive 152s/172s quite happily from right hand seat with right hand on yoke (just like driving a car in the UK really); more of a problem in gliders where I tended to prefer poling the stick left handed, prompting a "what are you going to use to operate the spoilers then?" from the instructor.

Just nerves mate. Don't worry. In my driving test the examiner said 'turn left' and I went right - luckily it wasn't a one-way street!

My Mum is left handed and was always taught "you write with your right hand" - hence the confusion. If I take her out and she's navigating, we have 'her side' and 'my side'...

:D

My big problem is points of the compass. I changed my DI from an old ribbon DI to a new card-type DI -- problem not solved, but vastly improved. Makes runway orientation at a new field much easier too.

QDM

QDM*3

Though you might like this, which I saw on AV Web




17-Aug-98
Airline pilots, like any of us, can have a tough time finding their way around an unfamiliar airport. One day at SJC (San Jose, Calif.), a UAL DC-10 was headed into unfamiliar territory. Controllers observed the aircraft come to a full stop just short of an intersecting taxiway and remain motionless. After a moment, Ground Control called and said, "UAL XXX turn right at that taxiway." There was no response. Again the controller said, "UAL XXX turn right at that taxiway." No response.
After a few seconds, the controller tried a different approach: "UAL XXX, turn toward the copilot", at which point the aircraft made an immediate 90-degree turn to the right...

dublinpilot,

I can believe it. The thing to watch out for if one does have a weakness like this is times of high workload. Then, you can get really confused, or else freeze, which may be worse.

QDM

I remember reading an article some time ago which found that people who have a different dominant hand to their dominant eye often suffered the same L/R confusion.

I am right-handed and left-eyed and have to admit to having to think twice about left and right.

I've the same problem with east/west.

North/South come instantly, but I have to think about east/west for some strange reason:confused:

Dublinpilot : As someone who is easily confused - took me ages to figure out throttle control as it seemed the wrong way round to me - I offer my tip for west/east. Looking at the compass the word WE is spelt. Hope this helps.:)

dublinpilot - I do exactly the same thing. No idea why.

I have no problem with actually going left and right if I'm driving/flying, but just like tredigraph if I'm giving someone else directions I'll usually get it wrong. :confused:

At least it isn't just me... :)

Same problems,can be a problem at a busy airport,getting better after more than a 1000 hours....

I'm another one who can't tell East from West, but has no problem with left and right.

Not usually a problem. Occassionally I screw up when I'm talking to someone, realise my mistake and correct it. Only time it was a real issue was flying into North Las Vegas. Contacted ATC, confidently told them I was west of the field, and told them the squawk which the previous controller had given me. Slight pause, then they asked me to confirm my position, so I did. Another pause, and they asked me to squawk ident - then very politely (well, not all that politely) informed me that actually I was east of the field, not west :eek:

Now I always mentally double-check east or west before I open my mouth. I'm sure it'll come naturally with practice, but I don't know how much practice it will take! :D

FFF
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eveepee

I know the difference between east & west. It's just that I have to think about it for 10/15 seconds. North/South come instantly.

But thanks for the tip.

While on the subject of tips--anyone have diffulty figureing out starbord/port and which side your red/green lights are?

Well here's how I remember.

Sitting in the plane, looking forward, on your right is the starboard, and the green light.

On your left is the port side, and red light.

Right has more letters in it that left. So does starboard and green.

All the options with more letters are on the same side.

Hope that helps someone!!

tip - point to the location of which you're trying to establish your bearing. Next, slowly move your hand in a straight line through the centerdot of the DI, continue past the centerdot and the heading you now read is your bearing FROM the feild. Works every time :)

e.g.

Stemming on from all this, anyone got an easy way to remember turning and acceleration errors for the compass and how to compensate for them? I don't think I'll ever remember that, however long I try.

QDM

It sometimes happens to ATC as well, so they shouldn't get that uppity about it.

As a yachtie I think we should go back to port and starboard. Much easier!

N orth
O pposite
S outh
E xagerate

A ccelerate
N orth
D ecelerate
S outh

hope this helps

QDM,

Learn the theory - that way you'll be able to handle any written exams, even if it takes you a minute to figure it out.

As for the practice, there are two times you'll need to understand compass errors - if your DI fails (simulated or real failure), or if you're flying an aircraft without a DI. In the former case, make all turns shallow enough that it makes very little difference. You won't need to worry about acceleration errors, because you can just continue flying in a straight line any time you accelerate. And if you're ever fortunate enough to fly a "real" aircraft with no DI, start off gently, and I'm sure it'll start to become instinctive before too long! :D

FFF
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