One which hasn't been mentioned and is not the original reason but is very valid is seaborne helos landing on a carrier deck can not land from the right side of the ship as there's some large lumps of steel in the way known as the 'island'. So landing from the left of the ship a right hand seat gives you a much better view (Try cross cockpit deck landing at night for a bit of a lark!!!)

Oh and flying right hand on collective's a real sod if you'r not doing it constantly. Just think in the hover drifting forwards normal correction right hand back ...ops the sods climbing so left hand goes down....bu??@^ it's going faster etc. etc. Tried it years ago on Gazelle, simple corrections ok, but ask me my name and it went to a ball of chalk so fast it was not funny. :eek: :D :eek:

Ok...i could be wrong but the H500 for example was designed as a work horse say for slinging etc:...so the pilot could sit on the left and lean out the door and have the collective in a comfortable position...have worked with senior pilots who use the duals say in a jetranger to sit on the left. The right hand thoery i agree with, easier to operate radios etc, may also be why the army version of the h500 the PIC sits on the right, obveousley for this reason, interesting topic,

Just a couple of observations after a few hours in the hills
An advantage of RH seat in an American machine
...Flying an American machine from the right is nice in mountains as when you approach ridges, you can always approach obliqely from left to right, slow down, have a look to see if the ridge or saddle is passable and the next valley is a place you want to be. If its not you pull power and are immediately turning right with the Torque and out of there using the least power for the manouver( no extra pedal) and you are on the right side so can see where you are going. If the next valley looks good you can drop the pole a bit and follow the decreased torque over the ridge with minimal cyclic, therefore not limiting your view too much as you turn left. It works for me. I haven't flown a 500 but can imagine some difficulty when you get in trouble and are pulling power. You want to turn left to see where you are going and the machine wants to follow the power - right.
A disadantage of RH seat in an American machine.
...When bringing a load in to a site on a long line with the torque gauge approaching red line, you have to ease up on the pedal to stay in limits while completing the final part of the approach. This causes the airframe to rotate putting the aircraft between you and the spot you wanted to land the load, forcing you to lean out further to keep the load landing spot visual and get the load where you want it. Not really a problem at low altitude assuming you are noty overloading, but would be nice to swap seats while doing hot and high work.

Lessee now...I have climbed in 500's over the collective, twiddled the knobs with both hands, fiddled with the cyclic with both hands, turned in the direction I wasn't looking, wenched in a thousand bars...errr..winched from both seats in the front, hovered over underslung loads while facing the rear in a stepped down cockpit (CH-54 Tarhe...Flying Crane to our tea drinking ex-owners), sat in the center seat on both right and wrong way turning machines,scooted over ridges with my eyes wide shut, and to the absolute best of my memory and study of many...many aircraft maintenance manuals have never seen any mention of a "Captain's Seat"! I have seen descriptions such as Pilots Seat, Right hand pilots seat...left hand pilots seat...hell...the Chinook even has a Troop Commanders Seat....but no Captain's seat. Doesn't it all boil down to sitting in the seat that has the sticks with the most buttons on it?

Heloplt
Hear, hear!
Great posting. Keep 'em coming.
In any case, does it really matter which seat cushion is dissappearing up ones fundamental orrifice in the course of ones duties?

'A hecktopleter is just a bunch of nuts and bolts flying in lose formation' :D

The concept of landing from the port side of the carrier was obviously never explained to Wings or Little F on Ark. Getting anything other than 6 Spot, adjacent to the oil and muck from the starboard reeves of 3 & 4 wires, was cause for a celebratory drink!

The best win I had was returning from NAS Norfolk with 120 bags of mail. When given the usual 6 Spot, ship turning nicely to put the wind out of limits, etc., we duly called "054 plus 120 sacks of mail, starboard hold"

'Twas a revelation to see the Ark find the incentive to turn back into wind, and offer "Clear land, which Spot would you like?" :D :D

Nice modern MD 600 I flew the other day had P1 in the left. MD 900 had him in the right - I give up!

Why do heli commanders sit in the RHS?
 

Why is it that in most helicopters the commander sits in the right hand seat? Is there any reason to make it different to fixed wing aeroplanes? Or is it just the fact that you guys like to be different? :)

Cheers,

ILS27R.

Why do fixed wing commanders sit in the left hand seat?

Hey ILS - it's just our little bit of anarchy ;)

And now for the serious answer....

On a lot of machines rigging to offset tail rotor drift makes the heli hover slightly left skid low with an even load. Hence it makes sense to have the P1 seat on the right so it'll hover level one up.

Anyway, Enstroms have the P1 seat on the left ...

By sitting on the right side of the helicopter the pilot can apply slight friction to the collective to keep it at its power setting and then use his left hand to change radios, etc. With aircraft that have three seats in the front the pilot sits in the left seat so that the collective can be taken out of the middle of the aircraft to make room for the center seat passenger.


:)

This doesn’t apply to all helicopters because as previously stated in this and other threads not all helicopters have the pilots on the right for what ever reason. However, with the advent of the larger helicopters such as the S-55 series, the S-58 series and others in the Sikorsky line the pilot sat on the right because the main entry to the helicopter and the hoist were on the right hand side providing the pilot with a view to what was going on. IMHO

In a helicopter of that size the positioning of the pilot would have minimal effect on the lateral CG
or, on the propeller effect of the tail rotor.

Hey Lu:

Just try it in an R22 ! ;)

Some like to say that since we like to avoid the flow of fixed wing (plank) traffic,
and most traffic is left handed patterns (circuits for my UK bro's/sisters)
that having us on the right side makes it easier to see-and-avoid.

Of course I'm interested in your answer to Coyote's response :D

We don't like to be different, we are different hehehe ....

Lu,

I thought the hoist was on the right because that's where the pilot sits.



Chicken....Egg...Chicken...Egg.....etc. :)

isn't it something to do with having his sword hand free so he can repel boarders ??

Grainger, your theory in your first post doesn't hold up when applied to French designed aircraft. Their rotors go the opposite way so they sit right skid low.

I tend to go for the theory that we sit on the right so we can operate radios etc with the left hand. This is easier than sitting on the left and having to swap hands on the cyclic and fly with the left hand, which in helicopters without stabilisation is not easy, and certainly not very ergonomic.
:p

Personally I prefer the H300 & H500 types with the PIC on the LHS.

It means as I cruise the neighbourhood I can keep the cyclic in hand while hanging my arm out the window:D :D

Once a lad................


cheers & flysafe
Hone

Also heard that long lining is easier from the LH seat with a bubble door , of course if you have really long arms it is OK in the RH seat also.

I remember posting this same question some months ago. Someone at that time said that when helicopters first came along, the first people to fly them were f/w pilots, so they sat in the left seat and their students sat on the right. So the first large group of heli pilots got used to sitting on the right, and carried on. People also mentioned not having to climb over the collective when you got in, and a whole host of other reasons, including the fact that some helis are flown from the left or the middle. Seems like the real reason, if there is one, is lost in the history of helicopter flying.

When I went thru Rotary Wing Qualification Course in the US Army in 1973, I ask the same question and was told;

From the cocpit seat the rotor blade swings from right to left....you can see if the area is clear before you start to spool up the rotors.

Best explanation I'd heard of....But then again, not all helicopter rotors turn the same direction....

.... and most helicopters have at least one other blade poking out the other side !!!!!!

Helicopters, cars etc.... right hand drive, it's the only way.
Look at the fast jet jockeys their little beasts are all laid out for right hand on the stick and left hand on the throttle where they should be.

The moral is: all half way decent vehicles HAVE to be right hand drive. Anything else is heracy.

But even more seriously, it's all about ergonomics. Left hand drive helicopters are simpy a pain, try changing frequency from tower to ground just as they put you in a hover on a hot day with a load of pax with only one radio with no pre-select and you will know why!

PIC Seating Position
 

Pax questioned my right seat position in the R22. I've heard numerous explanations from my colleages.

1. That's the seat I trained from. Subsequently became a habit.

2. On counterclockwise helicopters, obvious choice of turn to the left, using less pedal than right turn. Right seat position good place to clear the tail.

Interested to know what type you fly? Your PIC seat position and why?

Always believed that on an R22 it was to do with CoG in relation to fuel.

Think you'll find that as the main fuel tank is located on the left hand side that pilot and fuel weight would cause CoG problems and insufficient cyclic control movement to maintain any sort of hover. Figured that was also why the PoH specifies a minimum pilot weight as well as maximum seat and baggage weights.

Presume similar reasons for the R44 and 206. All naturally hover left skid low so better distribution of weight must help. However willing to be enlightened by those more in the know.

Schweizer 300 has PiC seat on the left and therefore, with me in command, hangs very left skid low :{

Something to do with Hughes saying "Only poofs and perverts sit on the right"

Cheers

Whirlygig

EC120 is certified to be flown from either seat.

I thought the right seat was 'the' PIC seat for historical reasons - my own theory is that it allows the Pilot to use his/ser left hand to operate the avionics etc.

If the command seat is on the right, the heli will be designed with other stuff on the left (fuel tank in R22 etc) to try and balance it out, rather than designing the helicopter and then choosing the single pilot seating position by whichever side's the lighter.

Aircraft with three front seats will tend to have the command seat on the left 'cos the central passenger does not necessarily want the Pilot's hand wandering up and down between their legs. ;)

My tuppence ha'penny.

PIC Position
 

Whirly

Is it the 300C which is left seat and right seat for 300CB.

I was told right seat because early helicopters only had one collective and with it been used by left hand it made more sense to have it in the helicopter rather than nearly hanging out. That's what I was told anyway.:ugh:

pandemonium revisited
 

Right, left, center--there's no reason for choices, any more than for CCW vs CW rotation main rotor.

Similarly for f/w; for the general aviation fleet, the FAA does not designate one side or the other as PIC or SIC, rather the left-right is resolved by the LOCATION of the individual designated as PIC, he can sit either side.

R22's, particularly, have a placard saying Right Seat Solo: the factory has made the decision for us, going beyond FAA policy but, since they put that placard up, the FAA subsequently backs it as mandatory. (DUMB placard--all that's needed really is intelligent use of W&B to place ballast right seat--maybe 80#--sufficient to offset L main tank, pilot light-or-heavy then would be OK in left seat solo. Then we'd have more operational flexibility for special missions. Except for the placard, requiring an act of congress to fly left seat solo.)

Why so many helicopters right seat command? Rumor I had heard (no substantiation available) was the the FIRST surviving heli pilot flew from left, like f/w, and was unwilling to take the risk of switching to the right to check out his fellow pilots. So all subsequent pilots learned to fly from right side, and here we are. This is so glibly plausible as to seem silly; does anybody know?

Many helicopters with dual controls are limited to being flown from the right seat single-pilot because...... well, just because. The controls, switches, and knobs that may require manipulation sometimes can only be reached from the right seat, because the manufacturer put them there. The right seat has become traditional for various reasons, some of which make sense. If you're in the left seat, and you need to tune a radio, do something with the GPS, or do anything else with switches, controls, etc, then you have to change your hands so that you control the cyclic with your left hand while you do what needs doing with your right hand. If an emergency, such as an engine failure occurs while you're doing this, then you have to do a lot of switching to take care of it, and in some models a second can become a lifetime. From the right seat, it's a relatively simple matter to just hit the collective with the left hand and go into autorotation, with little loss of time.

The story goes that the first Sikorsky(??) model with two pilot seats had only one collective, in the middle, and flying from the right was preferable to the pilots, who were right-handed. I won't swear to the truth of that, though, because I wasn't there.

I asked this same question a couple of years ago on here, thinking it was probably a silly question and that everyone except me knew the answer!!! The thread then ran for several pages. You might still find it if you do a search. Anyway, the concensus seemed to be, much as on this one, that it was mainly a historical thing.

I'm with Gomer on this one. I'd heard about there being only one collective in the centre, but on a Bell model, Sikorsky's early models were only one seat in the centre of a thin fuselage.:\

The Sycamore in the Museum of Army Flying at Middle Wallop has a centre-mounted collective.

I sit in the left seat ALL the time and I'M the commander of the aircraft. Instructor.

Gomer Pylot, was not aware the left / right handed dominance was an issue in cyclic control. I'm left handed, control the R 22 cyclic with right hand. I remember bringing up the issue with my instructor prior to beginning the commercial course. The old adage "if in doubt mumble" well it worked. Never thought about it again.

Dominant handedness isn't really that much of an issue except for the historical reasons. Plank drivers, flying from the left seat, use their left hands on the wheel. The real issue is that the cockpit in a helicopter is set up in such a way that it's really impractical to fly with the left hand on the cyclic most of the time. The collective is on the left, and the orientation of the cyclic head is such that it's just not that easy to do it left-handed.

Dominant handedness isn\'t really that much of an issue except for the historical reasons. Plank drivers, flying from the left seat, use their left hands on the wheel. The real issue is that the cockpit in a helicopter is set up in such a way that it\'s really impractical to fly with the left hand on the cyclic most of the time. The collective is on the left, and the orientation of the cyclic head is such that it\'s just not that easy to do it left-handed.

BTW, I sit on the left side at least half the time, and I\'m almost always the PIC. Sometimes I just fill in as a cojo with a more senior captain. Our normal practice is to alternate seats on alternate days, so the captain may be on either side.

We have a left-PIC 300CB and a right-PIC 300CBi. You can get the 300s however you want them.

I spend about the same amount of time in each seat - I like the right because you can clear the tail, I like the left because the collective is closer to the seat and ergonemetrically more comfortable.

Other than that, left, right, whatever, it's all good!

Enstrom is usually flown from the left, however it can legitimately be flown solo from the right - exept there is no starter button on the right. I have done both and it makes absolutely no detectable difference to the way it flies, apart from it flies right skid low when P1 on the right. The mast on an Enstrom leans to the left which apparently counters the C of G thing to make it hover level when lard arse is on the left. It seem to work.

As has been said before, no centre lever with 2 pax so P1 must be on left. A bit of a no brainer really.

Someone said about hovering an R22 whilst fiddling with the radio. I vividly remember my instructor demonstrating what happens when the pax leans on the lever to get comfortable whilst doing this. Believe me, its safer to land first!

Which is the right seat?
 

Unless it has already been mentioned here is the reason for flying from the right seat. Since the days of the S-55 (H-19), H-34 and the likes the passengers entered and exited from the right hand side of the helicopter and, the hoist was also installed on the right hand side which gave the pilot clear view of what was happening relative to ingress and egress and what was happening relative to the hoisting operation. Placement of the hoist cable gave advent to vertical reference.

Even on early small helicopters (B-47) the Pilot flew the helicopter from the right hand seat. On the S-51 which is also equipped with a hoist mounted on the left side of the helicopter the pilot occupied a centerline seat. The same was true for the B-47 J2 Ranger.

Who’s to say which is the correct position? As they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

:E :E