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Seahawk left seat instead of right for pilot?


Yoram777

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Hi,

I was wondering if it is possible to fly the seahawk from the left seat instead of the right. I guess europeans fly choppers like they drive cars..from the right. I live in USA and prefer to fly from the left..unless this is how the chopper is flown everywhere.

Thanks for any help,

Yoram

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Ehh only in England they drive their cars on the right, here in Holland we do it normal :P

I guess you need to mirror de bitmap and move the gauges a bit, but don't know that for sure.

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Two things the be clarefied here

It is an UNIVERSAL standard the pilot sits on the right. This is due to the fact that the cyclic must be held with the right hand (usually the strongest) freeing the left hand for radio and avionics operation (nowadays avionics can be cloned at both side, but in the early models they were always set to the front right side of the panel). Also because the collective have always been set in the MIDDLE of the helicopter (tail rotor shaft), thus the operation with the left hand became a standard. These days modern choppers duplicate the controls on both sides, BUT the collective sits to the LEFT and the cyclic in the middle (front of the seat).

So you see people flying choppers by the left? Not rare, but unusual.

I am european and I DO NOT drive my car in the right seat. That's an ENGLISH preference that's only found in England, Australia or South Africa. Furhtermore, since when car driving influence aviation?

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I am european and I DO NOT drive my car in the right seat. That's an ENGLISH preference that's only found in England, Australia or South Africa.

Ahem...dont forget Ireland :D:lol:

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what if you left handed?

That mite be correct, but in fixed wing aircraft. Most will have you holding the yoke with you left hand and the right hand free to mess around with instruments, radios, engine controls.

Im right handed but have no trouble flying using my Left hand.

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NJ_Flyer

I assure you there are helis with the just one collective in the middle, so left handed user can fly with the collective to the right. This is due to marketing much more than a need.

I can also assure you the heli design was not made thinking about left handed people.

And It's not (AT ALL) the same flying a yoke/rudder/throttle and a cyclic/torque/collective...

I also fly Captain side in airplanes a lot and I find it easier to fly this way since I am used to have my right hand on the throttle, but in the helicopter this configuration is very a awkward, ask any helicopter pilot, it's just not natural for us...

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Yeah I have never flown a helicopter so cant comment on how hard they are to fly from either left hand or right hand.

My post regarding left hand was a joke, so hope I didnt annoy you by that.

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You forgot Japan and I believe Canada also drive on the left.

We drive on the right side of the road here. :wink:

If I were to visit a country that drives on the left side, I'm not sure that I'd be able to do it.

We get a lot of Brit TV here and when I watch them driving, I'm pretty sure that I'd be totally confused every time I came to an intersection. I'd have to stop and think which lane I should be turning into.

Thankfully we follow the USA system. Most people here travel to the USA quite often (the border is only 60 miles from here) and it would be chaos if we had different systems.

As a side note... the Americans are changing their 'Daylight Saving Time' next year. We're also going to change our times to match theirs. We're linked pretty closely to the US, so it's important that we match our systems as much as possible to the way they do things.

The biggest difference is that we use the metric system here whereas the Americans don't.

Puppy

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Hi,

I was wondering if it is possible to fly the seahawk from the left seat instead of the right. I guess europeans fly choppers like they drive cars..from the right. I live in USA and prefer to fly from the left..unless this is how the chopper is flown everywhere.

Thanks for any help,

Yoram

PS: it is not an obligation to sit in the right side, some pilots actually prefer the left side. I dont know if its legal but I have seen it before.

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