Landing from the right seat

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drummer4468

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drummer4468
Hi all, just thinking out loud a bit and casually wondering about others' opinions/experiences:

After a few hundred hours of flying, I recently went up with a friend who is a much newer pilot. This was quite a new experience for me, as not only was I not used to NOT being PIC, it was my first flight ever in the right seat. Once I got over the initial weirdness of not being the one in charge (I'm rarely even in the passenger seat of a car), I quickly grew quite comfortable with it. Although, I had to try really hard not to be a "right seat driver" lol.

We had a good time comparing notes, mostly him poking my brain about ways he can improve since he's a bit rusty and I have a lot more real-world experience(gawd, did I really used to be THAT bad on the radio?:rolleyes:). It's quite timely as I'll be pursuing CFI in the near future and it was nice to get a taste of that perspective. A few times he handed the controls over to me as we cruised around our round-robin XC. A couple of times, I took us pretty far into a nice stable landing approach before handing the yoke back over.

Point of this rambling being, I was about 95% sure I could have landed quite nicely, but didn't want to take the chance of being unpleasantly surprised with how different the roundout/flare was, without an instructor in the left seat. If you've recently transitioned to the right seat, how was your experience? Was it all THAT different, or might I be overthinking it a bit?
 
The answer depends a bit in the pilot and how they were taught to land to begin with. For many, a student pilot tendency to land well left of centerline and crabbed a bit translates to its mirror image. Than can be minor or major.

For others, it's not a big deal. For me, my biggest issue was pulling the mixture instead of the throttle.

Either way, the first time is usually best with a lesson.
 
drummer4468 said:
Point of this rambling being, I was about 95% sure I could have landed quite nicely, but didn't want to take the chance of being unpleasantly surprised with how different the roundout/flare was, without an instructor in the left seat. If you've recently transitioned to the right seat, how was your experience? Was it all THAT different, or might I be overthinking it a bit?
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I did my CFI in my Skywagon, and since sight-picture is so important in taildraggers I made sure I had a competent instructor in the left seat that could save my airplane if I screwed it up. I told him "I don't care about my feelings, shadow the controls I want you to make sure the airplane is okay". I had about 450 hours left seat in THAT airplane, so it took me a fair bit of effort to feel comfortable right seat, it was probably around 3-5 flights before I got my confidence back. Now I feel comfortable switching to any airplane, left seat, right seat, front seat or back seat (tandem airplanes) without much trouble.
 
A rather tiny insignificant data point but here is my right seat landing story.

I was a fairly new private pilot and was working on my ME as my CFI who owned the plane, Beech Duchess, made me a great deal. I was only a couple of hours into my training when a friend of mine who had a Piper Geronimo asked if I wanted to go flying with him. Of course I did. We went up and after he flew around for awhile and did a practice landing, he let me have the controls. I flew around for a bit, did a couple gentle turns and we headed back to the airport. I asked when he wanted to take the controls back and he said he would if needed but to go ahead and take it on in. He told me what airspeeds to fly and when to put down the flaps and gear but that was it. I was expecting him to take over on short final but I also knew that I was doing ok. He never touched the controls.

Greaser!

It was probably my best twin landing ever and my first one in any plane from the right seat. Maybe I just got lucky. But to me it was no big deal. And I am by no means a super great pilot.
 
I was recently asked if it is legal to fly right seat with left empty? Apparently wants a piper but prefers having a door on the correct side
 
Sight pictures and changing hands are the big changes. Now you gotta poke around with that left hand. Get that CFI rating, it’s a ton of fun.
 
Randomskylane said:
I was recently asked if it is legal to fly right seat with left empty? Apparently wants a piper but prefers having a door on the correct side
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It is unless the aircraft has a limitation requiring the left seat when solo. It's rare but some do, usually related to the reachability of certain things.
 
First time I landed from the right seat was a real experience. I was safety pilot for a cfi that wanted to do approaches from the left. I did the final landing. Using different hands wasn’t that big a deal, but the sight picture was. I think it was because I was so used to using my peripheral vision from the left to help during the flare. All of a sudden it wasn’t there. The odd feeling started on final.
 
Randomskylane said:
I was recently asked if it is legal to fly right seat with left empty? Apparently wants a piper but prefers having a door on the correct side
Click to expand...
Answer: Sometime. Example. Sikorsky S-76 Flt Manual limitations section says that minimum crew is "One pilot seated in the right seat." The reason is that not all controls and switches can be reached from the L seat. The parking brake is a stretch for the small in stature and some important switches are located down near the floor on the R side of the console. Many other aircraft have similar Limitations. If your a/c has no limitation in the POH, don't sweat it.
If you have trouble determining where dead ahead is, before flight, point the plane at a distant object at 12 o'clock and mark the windshield with a china marker.
 
It took me a few hours to get the sight picture down. When I was a full time CFI, if I was flying solo, I’d sit from the right seat since it became natural to me.
 
Further more, my postman operates his USPS van ok with its right hand drive.
 
drummer4468 said:
Hi all, just thinking out loud a bit and casually wondering about others' opinions/experiences:

After a few hundred hours of flying, I recently went up with a friend who is a much newer pilot. This was quite a new experience for me, as not only was I not used to NOT being PIC, it was my first flight ever in the right seat. Once I got over the initial weirdness of not being the one in charge (I'm rarely even in the passenger seat of a car), I quickly grew quite comfortable with it. Although, I had to try really hard not to be a "right seat driver" lol.

We had a good time comparing notes, mostly him poking my brain about ways he can improve since he's a bit rusty and I have a lot more real-world experience(gawd, did I really used to be THAT bad on the radio?:rolleyes:). It's quite timely as I'll be pursuing CFI in the near future and it was nice to get a taste of that perspective. A few times he handed the controls over to me as we cruised around our round-robin XC. A couple of times, I took us pretty far into a nice stable landing approach before handing the yoke back over.

Point of this rambling being, I was about 95% sure I could have landed quite nicely, but didn't want to take the chance of being unpleasantly surprised with how different the roundout/flare was, without an instructor in the left seat. If you've recently transitioned to the right seat, how was your experience? Was it all THAT different, or might I be overthinking it a bit?
Click to expand...

Using the left hand for throttle is the biggest difference. I actually find it easier to land from the right seat. The theory is that landing from the right seat would be easier for those who are right-eye dominant. However, glass panels are harder to see from the right side.
 
sarangan said:
Using the left hand for throttle is the biggest difference. I actually find it easier to land from the right seat. The theory is that landing from the right seat would be easier for those who are right-eye dominant. However, glass panels are harder to see from the right side.
Click to expand...
Agreed about glass, but otherwise right and left are the same to me at this point
 
My first right seat landing was a disaster. I had a fresh cert, maybe 60 hours or less. Flying in a 182 for the first time, the guy just says “land her” and I was way over my head with how nose heavy the thing was. Combined with the sight picture difference it’s a wonder I didn’t kill us.

After I had a few hundred hours I started flying the 162 from the right side just for fun and it was a non event.
 
I change seats often. What I've found for most is, if the top of the panel is rounded, it changes the picture significantly. My friend who owned a Chief could never get landing from the right seat down. I've also noticed this in straight-tail 182s. The pilots who want to try this always seem to be crabbed fairly dramatically to the right. Someone smarter than me will tell us all why!

My girlfriend is learning in a 182A. I almost always put her in the left seat when I'm flying that plane because she sits there when her instructor is with her. I didn't even think about this when we jumped in my 182B and I got in the left seat. I had her line up to do the landing and she quickly got frustrated. It didn't dawn on me what was different until she said, "I'm not used to flying over here, everything feels off."
 
sarangan said:
Using the left hand for throttle is the biggest difference.
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I felt the same. At the time, I was regularly flying one type that a R hand stick for pitch and roll and power in the left. I would fly another that had a Left hand yoke for pitch and roll and a right hand throttle. Sometime out of one and immediately into the other. I had no issues.
I was putting a Luscombe 8 back together and psyching up for her first flight. I started to fixate on the Luscombe's left stick and right throttle and saw all kinds of trouble coming up. I had never flown one. Now the Luscombe was enough assembled to taxi, so that's what did. No fairings and all inspection ports open. It all seemed to come together OK after five minutes. She and I formed a bond after ten minutes. I thought "What was I obsessing about?"
 
BIG airplanes is just plain no big deal. Fly them by the numbers anyway.

Small airplanes isn’t UNTIL you have a certain amount of time. THEN it matters. Before that, you’re just flying by the numbers.

My experience anyway...
 
Thanks for all the input everyone. Looking forward to getting more experience when I start CFI training.

Maxnr said:
Further more, my postman operates his USPS van ok with its right hand drive.
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That concept actually came to mind as well. I have lots of experience switching between right- and left-hand drive vehicles, so maybe that's why I felt a lot more comfortable with the different sight picture than I thought I would.

sarangan said:
Using the left hand for throttle is the biggest difference. I actually find it easier to land from the right seat. The theory is that landing from the right seat would be easier for those who are right-eye dominant. However, glass panels are harder to see from the right side.
Click to expand...

Hmm, interesting. I'd have thought the opposite about glass, what with not having parallax to contend with. Left-hand throttle and flap lever was definitely weird though.
 
drummer4468 said:
Hmm, interesting. I'd have thought the opposite about glass, what with not having parallax to contend with. Left-hand throttle and flap lever was definitely weird though.
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No parallax, that's true. But the glass displays don't have a wide angle of view. That is one of the problems with LCD displays. OLEDs are better, but I believe the G1000 and G5 are LCDs.
 
sarangan said:
No parallax, that's true. But the glass displays don't have a wide angle of view. That is one of the problems with LCD displays. OLEDs are better, but I believe the G1000 and G5 are LCDs.
Click to expand...
Good information, thanks! I also recently transitioned into a G1000 Skyhawk as well, so I'll certainly keep that in mind.
 
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