Why is a standard hold right turns?

"William W. Plummer" wrote in message
news:0afEc.126010$eu.46151@attbi_s02...

Maybe that's because many "fields" were used to land airships. They were
circular so wind direction didn't matter. It's hard to define a
"pattern"
for a circular field. Lakehurst NJ is still circular and is easily seen
from airliners heading to the JFK VOR from the south.


This was the day of the "all-ways" airfield. There were no runways at many
airfields, they were just open fields. Airplanes simply landed and took off
into the wind

Yup, it was a Duchess. To spoil the story as it were, he had a hard landing
(wide RWY at night was the prognosis) came and had another one damaging the
nose gear...too bad

Iain


"Randy at Home" wrote in
message
.cable.rogers.com...
You sure that wasn't just an RJ? Probability is pretty high ducking.

"Iain Wilson" wrote in message
news | You can still get in...just 2 weeks back someone took a training twin in
| from 06C at 11pm for a T&G
|
|
| Iain
|
|
| Is it really none now? 15-20 years or so ago you could get a few
| touch-and-goes in the wee hours, say 3 AM or so.
|
|
|
|

oops, should have said Travel Air


"Iain Wilson" wrote in message
ink.net...
Yup, it was a Duchess. To spoil the story as it were, he had a hard
landing
(wide RWY at night was the prognosis) came and had another one damaging
the
nose gear...too bad

Roy Smith wrote in message ...
It has always struck me odd that a standard landing pattern is left
turns and a standard hold is right turns. Having a left patterns for
landing makes a bit of sense, since the pilot is on the left side of the
cockpit and has a better view of the runway making left turns.

But, for IFR holds, there doesn't seem to be any advantage to one way or
the other. Why did they pick right turns to be standard?

Perhaps they just had to pick one and since most of us are right
handed, it may have been an easy suggestion. The straight section was
probably to adjust for wind correction, etc. It would be pretty hard
to stay over the holding fix if you just kept turning and never flew
straight. Of course, back then, the holding fix was probably an AM
radio beacon not a fix painted on a full color Garmin. The left hand
landing pattern seems pretty obvious since people seem to have always
wanted to fly from the left seat.

-Robert

(Robert M. Gary) wrote in
m:

snip
... The left hand
landing pattern seems pretty obvious since people seem to have always
wanted to fly from the left seat.


Do people in Europe fly from the right seat?

Do people in Europe fly from the right seat?

are you serious? They certainly can just like many people
in the US fly from the right seat (CFI's)

it is the same as the US. I bet even in England, they fly
from the left seat but they probably don't call the V-airways
as a V like often doesn't mean "victory" but "f**k you." grin

Gerald

Judah wrote in news:Xns951DD2EF8772AjudahNOSPAMMSG@
167.206.3.2:

Do people in Europe fly from the right seat?

They do if they fly helicopters, just as we do in the US. Flying from the
left seat has never made any sense at all to me. Most people are right-
handed, and flying from the left seat requires using your left hand, while
using the right to tune radios, etc. We fly helicopters from the right,
allowing the use of the right hand on the cyclic stick to keep upright, while
tuning, eating donuts, etc with the left.

In reality, flying from the right puts the collective in the center, so you
don't have to climb over it to get in and out; plus, the very early models
had only one collective, and the left-seat pilot had to use the left hand on
the cyclic, and the right on the collective, and this isn't easy to get used
to. Most of these type things go back to historical trivia; it was done on
one model for whatever reason, and just became tradition.

Regards,

Stan

"Stan Gosnell" wrote in message =
...
Judah wrote in news:Xns951DD2EF8772AjudahNOSPAMMSG@
167.206.3.2:
=20
Do people in Europe fly from the right seat?
=20
They do if they fly helicopters, just as we do in the US. Flying from =
the=20
left seat has never made any sense at all to me. Most people are =
right-
handed, and flying from the left seat requires using your left hand, =
while=20
using the right to tune radios, etc. We fly helicopters from the =
right,=20
allowing the use of the right hand on the cyclic stick to keep =
upright, while=20
tuning, eating donuts, etc with the left. =20
=20
In reality, flying from the right puts the collective in the center, =
so you=20
don't have to climb over it to get in and out; plus, the very early =
models=20
had only one collective, and the left-seat pilot had to use the left =
hand on=20
the cyclic, and the right on the collective, and this isn't easy to =
get used=20
to. Most of these type things go back to historical trivia; it was =
done on=20
one model for whatever reason, and just became tradition.
=20
Regards,
=20
Stan

I thought some European helicopters turned their rotors oppositely,
and for a related reason flew from the left. Did I think wrong?
---JRC---

"John R. Copeland" wrote in
:

I thought some European helicopters turned their rotors oppositely,
and for a related reason flew from the left. Did I think wrong?
---JRC---

Yes, you did. The direction the rotors turn has nothing to do with where the
pilot sits. It does mean you have to use a different foot to counteract
torque, but that's instinctive, at least for most pilots, except for power
changes in cruise. There have been a few American (and European) helicopters
(The Hughes 500, for instance) in which the standard pilot's seat was on the
left, for some unknown reason. As for which direction the main rotor turns,
it was originally due to engineering reasons. The first Sikorsky models
turned either direction, depending on which required the least number of
gearboxes. Tradition took over eventually, and the French decided to be
different, just because they were French. The Russians did the same.
Everyone else has stayed with the clockwise direction as viewed from below.

What this has to do with IFR, I don't know. ;-) On topic, flying with the
right hand makes writing clearances, etc a little dodgy. I have to keep my
kneeboard on my left knee, because I use the right knee for my forearm.
Fortunately, my first officer can take the clearances for me, or vice versa.
Single-pilot, it can get tricky.

Stan Gosnell wrote:


They do if they fly helicopters, just as we do in the US. Flying from the
left seat has never made any sense at all to me. Most people are right-
handed, and flying from the left seat requires using your left hand, while
using the right to tune radios, etc. We fly helicopters from the right,
allowing the use of the right hand on the cyclic stick to keep upright, while
tuning, eating donuts, etc with the left.

In reality, flying from the right puts the collective in the center, so you
don't have to climb over it to get in and out; plus, the very early models
had only one collective, and the left-seat pilot had to use the left hand on
the cyclic, and the right on the collective, and this isn't easy to get used
to. Most of these type things go back to historical trivia; it was done on
one model for whatever reason, and just became tradition.

I heard once that the right-seat thing got started because some early model had
flame coming out the exhaust stack that was very distracting from the left seat
at night.

Probably a pure BS urban legend, though. ;-)