From then on, dual collectives became standard for side-by-side seating, and a helicopter pilot could fly from either the left or right seat. Got a nagging question about aviation or space? Use our online submission form , and we'll do our best to answer it.
Or maybe we already have. Continue or Give a Gift. Daily Planet. Flight Today. History of Flight. Aviation Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for aircraft pilots, mechanics, and enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. So far as I am aware, in a fixed wing aircraft having side-by-side seating and dual controls but only a single set of instruments, those instruments are always positioned in front of the left seat.
Even when an aircraft such as commercial air transport is fitted with dual instruments, the left seat is designated as the "pilot-in-command" or "captain's" position.
This "left-seat as principal" designation appears to hold true for any fixed wing aircraft from a Cessna to a Boeing , in all jurisdictions of manufacture and operation. For a helicopter, the situation appears to be reversed - the "pilot in command" appears to always occupy the right seat. Is this true, always, or is it an observational bias?
Is this simply convention or is it specified by regulation? What would account for exceptions, if any? The first mass produced helicopter was the Sikorsky R It had a single collective located between the two pilot seats, so by necessity, the person on the right would control the cyclic with their right hand, and the person on the left would control the cyclic with their left because their right is needed on the collective.
The cyclic in the R-4 was very difficult to manipulate and required a lot of strength and coordination. Since the vast majority of student helicopter pilots were right handed, they sat in the right seat, allowing them to use their dominant hand on the cyclic.
Thus, the first generation of helicopter pilots all sat in the right seat, since they all learned on the R-4 or the R That's how traditions begin. The operational applications of sitting in the right seat relate to the inherent instability of a helicopter. A helicopter pilot rarely wants to let go of the cyclic, as it often requires continuous control inputs, especially when hovering.
The collective, on the other hand, does not need to be monitored as closely and can be held steady with a friction adjustment, so that hand is occasionally free to manipulate things like radios and other equipment, which are located in the center of the cockpit.
Most helicopters these days have a collective for each seat, located on the left, so the pilot wants to use the hand in the middle of the cockpit to work the radios and things. Hence, they sit on the right side, which places the collective hand in the middle of the cockpit. You can read a longer article about this: Why do helicopter pilots sit in the right seat? The thrust from the tail rotor on a counter-clockwise spinning helicopter tends to create a translational shift to the right which is countered by rigging the cyclic neutral position to be slightly left of centre.
This results in the left skid "hanging low". So as not to make this skid even lower, it is a practical reason to sit a solo occupant on the right. Even when solo, the left skid still hangs visibly lower. Some light helicopters are prohibited from solo flight in the left seat e. R22 as it would be possible to run out of cyclic authority in some circumstances.
Here is the lateral CG chart for the R As you can see, the right side of the helicopter has a greater lateral CG envelope than the left, which is why the solo pilot always sits on the right.
Another reason helicopter pilots sit on the right is because the cyclic is held in the right hand, and the collective in the left. In the early years when helicopters were under powered and their rotor systems were simple and basic it made sense for the pilot to sit on the right because the advancing blade, on the right create more lift then the retreating blade on the left since the forward speed of the chopper is added to the rotational speed of the blade. This caused asymmetrical lift and it was partially compensated for by having the pilot sit on that side of the helicopter.
When flying The H 13 in Korea with both seats occupied we always placed the litter on the right skids for that reason. In a helicopter, because the right hand is stronger and more accurate for many people, and the cyclic control is the most demanding, the right hand is permanently dedicated to the cyclic control.
Other actions have to be conducted with the left hand. Bonus: If we want to remove one collective lever in a dual control rotorcraft, we must keep the right one, and then this looks like this when piloting from the left seat:.
Operating a Sikorsky XR-4 with hands reversed - Not something your want when you're a student. So in the student will use the right seat, and takes the habit to seat on this side.
The stick the cyclic pitch control is used with the right hand, the most agile one for a right-handed pilot. This control is of prime importance as a helicopter is inherently unstable requiring a constant adjustment of its attitude by the pilot using the cyclic. First story states that it would be for a better control of the collective, while the other story rather say that Les Morris, test pilot for Sikorsky, was used to sit on the left seat in the VS, in which the collective control was on the left side of the seat, and did not want to change seat when he started to teach students how to fly the R-4, so they were trained in the right seat.
The students were then used to fly from the right seat, which would explain why the pilots would sit on the right side of the helicopter in the U. However, there would be an advantage to sitting in the left seat while carrying loads underneath the helicopter. Indeed, this would allow the pilot to be able to see the load better than in the right seat, since it is easier to control the collective while leaning to the left.
Do you think helicopter pilots should be in the left seat like a fixed wings aircraft pilot, or should it stays as it is? Your email address will not be published.
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