The answer is to teach pilots to be ambidextrous. And put the captain in the middle at the front. So he gets it from both sides when the s--t hits the fan.
Not disimiliar from now: dammed if you do dammed if you dont.
So who wants to be midway in the tree of managerial process. Kicked by the pax and moaned at by the boss

What about H500? That's Left hand drive!!

I was just about to say the 500 is a LH drive. The H300 (269C) is also LHD as well as the old S55 (correct me if wrong...) On the S76 CHC Australia have the Captain on the LHS, so thats one theory out the door...
Heres a story about a H500 driver in NZ.
I read this is the crash comics a couple of years ago. He was exiting a H500 with gumboots and raincoat on. As he climbed over the collective he slipped and the raincoat caught the throttle and wound it full open. He landed on his mush and the machine took to flight. Apparently he considered jumping back in and then common sense took over and he dove behind some handy fuel drums (!)
The machine translated and wrote itself off in a nearby paddock....Sad but true.
One good reason to sit on the right.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

And there I was, thinking I was asking a very simple question, with a straightforward answer that almost everyone knew except me. :confused:

Here's another old wive's tale.
Aeroplane standard circuit: Left Hand. F/W and Helos flying together at same airfield, easier to separate the circuits into LH for F/W and RH for helos. Therefore easier for helo pilot to fly the circuit from RH seat. Then just became a habit......

If memory serves, the reason for P1 position being on the left on 'some' 500's is that you can seat three in the front row. Very uncomfortable for the centre occupant if the Captains collective is there.

I was always told it was due to "convention" and that in the early flights by Igor Sikorsky that he moved his seating position to get the C of G right and that he ended up on the right hand side in the VS300 (or whatever it was called)

just my useless contribution, please ignore it !

Lots of interesting responses...prob Nick Lappos would have a REAL answer...I personally think that is is just a convenient convention so as to allow the Captain of the A/C the ability to keep his hand on the cyclic at all times. As for the CHC rescue S76 in Oz the commander of the 'rescue' sits in the LH seat because the A/C command pilot is (still) sitting in the RHS seat. The Hu500 civillian version certainly seats the pilot on the LHS...however the OH6 (loach) seated the driver on the RHS... in the end I guess it really depend on the engineers who get the suckers certified! .....may the conjecture contine ... :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

If Memory serves, the 500 usually has the P1 seat on the left because it can be fitted with three seats in the front row. This can be a bit unpleasant for the occupant of the centre seat if the collective for the right hand seat is not removed first!

Oops, got a call as I sent the first reply, didn't think it had gone out.

In reality, it all boils down to what the individual manufacturer felt was the best configuration for the design. The ability to turn lose of the collective is (was) an important consideration in some designs however, ignored in others (as pointed out in earlier posts). Insofar as weight and balance, again, important considerations in some designs, ignored in others and, changed by STC and or field modifications in quite a few. (i.e., it is easier to perform external load ops from the left seat - better view, not leaning away from the collective, etc. Therefore, numerous operators have converted numerous aircraft models to accomodate left seat operations for various mission requirements - BH206, BH212/ 412, BH214, AS315, 316/ 319, on and on. The 47 had several variations that flew from left seat(most G models), right seat (some OH13), center (J models) In fact, the J model pilots sat in front of the passengers all by him/ herself. Hillers were the same with three configurations. Sikorsky bounced around with theirs as well to a certain extent as did Hughes (MD). Hope this muddies the water some more.

B. Loser

Hi Whirly

For my two cents worth, I asked an instructor some time back if I could fly from the left just to see what it was like. He rightly said that the important thing was not to get hung up on which side you flew from, as some are south paws and some aren't. The case of the 500 incidently is that in civil configuration, the captain is on the left, but in the mil' layout they don't need the third seat in the front (cos' they arent paying for it, and seat cost doesn't mean much? ) and the captain is on the right. I will wait to be corrected on that.

:)

CB & spinwing your both sort of right.
For SAR ops in the autohover 76's the 'rescue' commander sits in the LHS mainly due to the orientation of all the twiddly bits and the FMS which are essential to the autohover sequence and conduct of the mission. The 'rescue' commander is also the aircraft captain the pilot occupying the RHS is normally a co-pilot.

Somebody mentioned the Enstrom earlier on. This is the same as the Hughes 500 & 300 in that it can have three pax across the front.

Isn't it because it gives you better vision when overtaking!!

Regarding the Hughes 500 : when it was being put into Civvie production, it was in competition with the B206. They wanted the same number of seats (5). As there was no room in the back for 3 people, they had to somehow put 3 in the front, and the only way that was possible was to put the P1 collective on the left hand side of the aircraft. Having said that, in the flight manual it says under typical usage "High density personnel transport (up to 7)" Now THAT I would like to see! Are we talking SWAT team here??

Yep, in the Enstrom the pilot sits on the left, two pax up front, and they can all die together. What a horrible aircraft. Flies like a washing machine.

I've flown on left, right, and center (center in the Bell 47 J as someone noted). Prefer the right, since I can reach for radios with my left hand. If I'm on the left, I have to take my left hand off the collective, put it on the cyclic, (wobble, wobble) and then use my right hand on the radios. Of course, economically it is a bit discouraging since, for example, the JetRanger looks to have enough room for three total up front (a la 500 style) but you'd need to shift the pilot to the left.

What about the US Military (possibly others), the aircraft commander sat in the left seat in Hueys, the FNG in the right. Can anyone add to this? I always figured it put the senior pilot on the correct side to have a better view of the earth as it rushed up to meet all occupants when it suddenly became very quiet in the engine compartment! Worked really well!

Fly safe, from the old aviator (not the bold one)

As an ex-SAR pilot flying basic Whirlwind HAR 10 (S-55) a thousand years ago, we were taught that the elementary design of early helicopters led to a hover which was left wheel low because of tail rotor roll ( which conteracts tail-rotor drift)- all this because of the direction of rotation of the main rotor on early helicopters.
To counteract this unbalance, the winch (and the single pilot), were seated on the right as opposed to the left on fixed-wing aircraft to restore a wings -level situation.
Subsequently, the world's operators have continued to feed of this situation and now common practice decides that the captain sits on the right.

Simple really.

The British Army's Army Air Corps switched over to having the Aircraft Captain in the LHS towards the end of the 80's. It worked on the theory that this let concentrate more on fighting the battle rather than flying the aircraft.