Tail strike crew swap seats
signaling a turn with your windshield wipers
Swapping seats inflight is total madness, I agree. But flying in the L or R seat is not all that different.
Example: why don’t I totally crash a rental car in south africa/the UK/australia? Doing the clutch or steering wheel my other hand does not cause such a short circuit as riding the bike in the YouTube shown above.
Example: why don’t I totally crash a rental car in south africa/the UK/australia? Doing the clutch or steering wheel my other hand does not cause such a short circuit as riding the bike in the YouTube shown above.
If a car had the gas pedal on the left and the clutch on the right, it might be pretty dangerous. But luckily they don't. It's pretty hard to mistake the door handle for the gear shift, so about the worst that can happen control-wise is signaling a turn with your windshield wipers.
"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
I ended opening the window several times instead of shifting gear.... I moved my right hand without thinking, it found a handle, and muscle memory did the rest.
When I taught close formation flying in the VC10, it was common to teach both the captain and co-pilot on the same flight. So a double seat swap for the instructor was quite normal - but there was always a pilot in one seat or other, fully strapped in and briefed.
Taking over a seat from someone who'd been sweating away flying close formation for half an hour or so was never fun!
We also did double seat swaps in the holding pattern whilst training, but always with one pilot strapped in and the autopilot engaged.
But NEVER a seat swap with no-one in a pilot's seat - that's madness!
One Air Eng held a pilot licence and once asked his captain for a landing. "Certainly", said the captain, "but first you must apply for a commission as a pilot, then if you pass the course, complete advanced flying training and get posted to the VC10, THEN you can have a landing!"
Taking over a seat from someone who'd been sweating away flying close formation for half an hour or so was never fun!
We also did double seat swaps in the holding pattern whilst training, but always with one pilot strapped in and the autopilot engaged.
But NEVER a seat swap with no-one in a pilot's seat - that's madness!
One Air Eng held a pilot licence and once asked his captain for a landing. "Certainly", said the captain, "but first you must apply for a commission as a pilot, then if you pass the course, complete advanced flying training and get posted to the VC10, THEN you can have a landing!"
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: US
Posts: 2,205
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Swapping seats inflight is total madness, I agree. But flying in the L or R seat is not all that different.
Example: why don’t I totally crash a rental car in south africa/the UK/australia? Doing the clutch or steering wheel my other hand does not cause such a short circuit as riding the bike in the YouTube shown above.
Example: why don’t I totally crash a rental car in south africa/the UK/australia? Doing the clutch or steering wheel my other hand does not cause such a short circuit as riding the bike in the YouTube shown above.
"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
Apart from all this, as I understand, the guy wasn't a trainer, so had no right to be in the RHS, unless the LHS was occupied by another captain.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
Posts: 5,898
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
The tanker pilots seem to guard the yoke on airliner Boeings when they are the pilot monitoring on the takeoff roll. I'm told this comes from some stab malfunction that happened 50 years ago.
Some of the KC-10 drivers have their head buried in the cockpit reading out the ground speed off the screen when you are turning into the gate. Don't they know that they are supposed to be texting their girlfriends at that critical phase of the flight?
Left hand drive.
If a car had the gas pedal on the left and the clutch on the right, it might be pretty dangerous. But luckily they don't. It's pretty hard to mistake the door handle for the gear shift, so about the worst that can happen control-wise is signaling a turn with your windshield wipers.
That works till you arrive at a junction or roundabout, if you're not concentrating it's all too easy to end up on the wrong side of the road. This is probably what happened to the poor chap who was killed on a motorcycle by the wife of an American diplomat in the UK a while back.
The worst case scenario would be an emergency of some sort where your muscle memory would kick in and you would probably reach for the wrong control.
It would be of little consequence in a car but has the potential to turn very nasty in an aircraft.
The worst case scenario would be an emergency of some sort where your muscle memory would kick in and you would probably reach for the wrong control.
It would be of little consequence in a car but has the potential to turn very nasty in an aircraft.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
Posts: 5,898
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
I flew from a junior East Coast base with all of the FO's, including me, type rated. A senior West Coast base flew mostly domestic with a few overwater routes like HNL that could be done with two pilots. The FO's weren't usually type rated since a third pilot was rarely required and a captain could be used under the contract in force when the base opened. The West Coast base was given a Pac Rim route and the relief pilot was a type rated FO deadheaded from my East Coast base. I often bid it since there was a lot of full pay deadhead and some good layovers in the trip.
The West Coast guys wanted to make sure that I was duly impressed with my betters and they were always talking about things like their Rolex collection and their air-cooled Porsches. I'd try to strike up a conversation about zero-turn radius mowers but they wouldn't be interested.
With some crews I didn't ever get into the pilot seats during the crossing, I was like an FE without a panel. With others we would seat swap for breaks. On one leg somehow the captain ended up in the right seat and the FO in the left at top of descent. I was ready to swap with the captain and temporarily sit in the right seat but he decided to have the FO leave the left seat and he stepped over the center console trying not to snag his trousers on the throttles.
Three decades later things are a lot more specific in ops manuals about seat swaps and who can occupy the seats in flight.
Pegase Driver
Join Date: May 1997
Location: Europe
Age: 74
Posts: 3,686
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: USA
Posts: 2,515
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Oh yes you do. And occasionally, depending on your student, you’ll go from right to left. The first few times you do it from the right, though, it’s decidedly odd.
