Right hand vs left hand

All airplane cockpits are laid out the same all over the world. The pilot is on the right

Interesting. I've never been in a cockpit, but is that extract true, and if so, why ? I await our aeronautical experts with baited breath. Maybe the history is similar to that of the car ?

If the captain needs to fiddle with lots of switches, it's best to have his more 'functional' arm allowed more space. Since most people are right-handed, that suggests he sit on the left. Just guessing. It might also explain why my wife can't drive .

That is an assumption on my part about cockpits all being laid out the same. It would seem reasonable so a pilot from one country or airline could transfer from one aircraft to another without having to be retrained. I'm pretty sure all 747's would be laid out the same and all DC 111's would likewise except maybe for some minor placements, but not major instruments. While I don't like to make assumptions (Y make an ass out of U and me), if I'm wrong about cockpits, then something is wrong with aircraft egronomics and it needs to be fixed.

Sure enough, I'd expect individual manufactureres to stick with the same handedness, but it doesn't explain the 'why'. I'm sure your correct about which side the captain is on, but I cant yet reconcile that with how cars evolved to dual systems. I think it's an excellent question to ask ronseto, though I'd like to choke Tex (below - 'Surely' is an all time classic joke) for making me laugh so bad !

The general topic of handidness is fascinating, and although I have several books on the topic I can't find any mention of something that would explain your observation about air craft. I'll try to give this all more considered thought over the weekend. CR4 has a number of threads that are related (though not specific to aviation), which might be useful if you can track them down.

I do not beleive that to be an accurate statement. I refer you to this.......here

Notice that the pilot is clearly seated on the left.

Thanks for pointing that out to me.

Correction. I meant the pilot is on the left and the copilot is on the right. I got my left/right mixed up. Sorry about that.

I think the rule is, everything is ergonomically designed for a right handed person. Lefties have to adapt to those configurations. (except for a handful of 'customized' products designed for the left).

Left handed people still have the use of their right hand: .. I would think that the right hand can be trained to do all the things that are necessary from a cockpit ergonomics standpoint, for example. As is the case in driving, where the switches for the heater, radio etc are on the right. Nobody is trying to reach those with their left hand (I hope!!)

The difference is more noticeable where strength is involved, as in sports. With rifles, it would probably depend on the individual, how difficult it is to adapt to something designed for right hand. My son and I are both left handed, but he throws with his right hand - I couldn't do that. I play guitar right handed, but he had to customize his instruments to play left handed. Good sports training tends to even out the tendency to rely on one side more than the other: strengthening your left if you're right handed and vice versa. I really noticed my 'handedness' as a handicap when I first started training in martial arts: right handers had the same weakness with the other side. With practice you overcome it.

For no reason at all.

In SA we drive on the left hand side of the road in RH drive cars. there is no advantages or disadvantages. Getting in a LH drive car is a bit uncomfortable for a short period plainly because you are not used to it. It is actually more awkward to be the passenger seat in a LH drive car.

America was the leader when aircraft was produced initially and it would be logical to expect the LH drive policy.

Changing planes to RH drives at this stage will not be impossible but will be costly and there would be no advantage.

Don't Euro drivers exit the car to the sidewalk?

Mostly history produced this "standard" much like railroad rail spacing.

The biggest change in decades was when Airbus went to side mounted control handles instead of the traditional "Yoke" which is comparable to a steering wheel.

And they put the pilot's on the left and the copilot's on the right. In other words both control handles are mounted "outboard" of their respective owners.

So as one progresses up the food chain, one first learns to joystick right-handed, then left-handed.

Any delays or inhibitions on the part of leftedness or rightedness are mitigated by two means:

• All design considerations have a built in delay time, the time allowed to the pilot to recognize and asses a situation before he deals with it.
• Training, training training. Down to the muscle memory level.

In the civilian aviation community almost any situation is improved by a 1 second, 2 second pause to consider. Nothing in the design, and nothing in most emergencies would be improved by split-second reactions. There are exceptions.

The military is a different world. But generally the farther you move the "norm" requirement to the right on the curve, the fewer pilots available and the more holes in the ground at the end of the day. Plus there is no money in building a superb dog-fighter. Stand-off weapons and sensor systems pay better.

Oh my tech minded friend. Remember low tech? The pre cursor to high tech. Prior to rail cars there were carriages and wagons. And way back when there were chariots too.

Controls have always been set to the right hand vantage. Just as musical instruments and all others. Nothing more, nothing less.

As for reaction time I doubt that any study would find a R:L bias.

Then again maybe these guys know better than I......here

When I speak of response time of a pilot in an emergency, I realize the LH/RH pilot would respond pretty much equally due to his training, but I'm talking about differences measured in fractions of a second. Would a study reveal any differences in an emergency when split second response is crucial? I emphasize emergency because that's when the instinctive response would take over. Maybe a fighter pilot might be a little better example. We know that computers now take over a lot of a fighter pilot's tasks due to the speed of fighters not allowing enough response time for the pilot to react.

Be a fun test to do. I'm sure we could find some difference.

A flight simulator is a fascinating little laboratory!

I need to jump into this one as a former F-15 Crew Chief in the USAF I can tell you that all military cockpits are not alike. The earlier model F-15 had 367 "different switches" many of which had more than one position. During my engine run certification part of the training was to position all switches to the "run position" and and then the instructor would call out an emergency. Your task at that second was to react to solve the emergency without looking down into the cockpit. You had typically only a second or two to act. During night training the cockpit lights would be turned off. I personally have been in 5 F-15 aircraft that caught on fire during ground engine run operations. On two occasions the fires were at night at high power settings. I only say this to illustrate that with proper reflex training left/right responses are automatic and without the confidence to execute tasks serious problems develop quickly . My minor incidents on the ground are NOTHING compared to what many of my pilots often described as hours of shear boredom high-lighted by seconds of shear terror.The left hand was throttles and primarily preflight or minimally changed controls. The right hand was control stick, radios,nav and other commonly adjusted items. One last thing I have not been in an F-15 cockpit for over 20 years but I would wager that I could "set-up" all 367 switches today with my eyes closed.So if anyone comes up with the test money I am there.

A little clarification: When I stated "all military cockpits are laid out the same", I mean all cockpits of a particular batch of planes will be the same. Obviously the cockpit of an F-15 is not the same as an F-18, but I think it would be prudent on the part of aircraft designers to try not to change the position of primary controls. Everytime the position of a control, gauge, switch, etc changes, due to a design change, re-certification would probably be required.

Also, a plane traveling at say, 600mph,(880 f/s) is going to travel 88 ft in the blink of an eye(1/10 sec). An incoming missile approaching from a 6:00 position would allow more response leeway, but one coming at you from a 12:00 position would cut response time down considerably. That's why I say, "fraction-of-a-second" and not "seconds". I know I've seen somewhere a table of normal response times and I believe they were in the area of < a second.

Thanks all for your input to this discussion. This was not intended to be a question, but only a discussion to broaden minds, both yours and mine.

As far as lefty / righty bias I was mostly thinking in terms of either using game-hand as opposed to off-hand.

But wanted to point out that the margins are large enough to wash out any difference.

Hi Ronseto,

Hope this might be helpful- There's a long-held theory that the Pilot/Left-Co-Pilot/Right configuration emanated from on-coming air traffic meeting left-side to left-side. When flying a track following visual landmarks, beacons etc you have to fly to the right side of the marked path and for the Pilot to see the markers he needs to sit on the left. Also, early aircraft had preferential left turning ability due to engine rotation direction, leading to left turn approaches being more preferable. To see the airfield, the Captain needed to be on the left side.

It's a little bit different for helicopters though, with the Pilot sitting on the right hand side!

There exists a book (in english) entitled "The left seat", where reference is made to moving up to the left seat, then achieving the status of 'pilot in command'.

I fly small recreational planes, all have the first pilot seated on the left, like in cars in the USA. If you have an instructor, he will sit on the right.

If the issue is 'speed of reflexes' then I don't think right/left handedness has any bearing. I think the speed of reflexes is independent of handedness.

Training certainly plays a part in reflexive actions (like reaching for the right correct switch). How fast you respond to that necessity is not handed.

I found out how fast my true reflexes are by being in a few close calls on the road. When it was over, I was maybe in a shock-like state, and surprised and veery thankful at how my body responded to the situation (never rehearsed or practiced) automatically, without any thought or delay. (apparently saving my life..)

For contrast, I once whacked the stun weapon out of a burglar's hands in my sleep. I was aware he was there although I was (more or less?) sleeping. I messed up his plan by moving at the last second. This is not reflexes: this is timing. It was a conscious decision. The blocking action that whacked his gun was reflexive in the sense that it was a product of training: an action that (by training) becomes automatic or 'reflexive'. (...I think he peed his pants.. )

But it is not the same thing as 'speed of reflexes' as it was in the driving..

Speed of reflexes is not the issue here. It's which hand (L/R) will respond first.

The co-polit is a backup system he can do everything the pliot can do so right hand or left hand does not matter once you sit down.