First Time Flying Right Seat?

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talkingbob

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JonC
Hello,

I am a PPL, ASEL. I have less than 150 hours, but am hoping to go for CFI-S when I have enough hours. Anyone care to chime in on how much time you think it would require in order for me to learn to fly/land right seat? I assume it would be prudent to do some flying in the right seat with an instructor in the left, correct?

Thank You!
 
It will take a few hours. Biggest difference is the sight picture and the change of control, as you'll be swapping flying hands and looking at the instruments from a different angle. The challenge comes during landing when trying to align the airplane with the runway and keep it straight. It will be easy to side-load for the first few landings.

It's not as easy as you think it would be. Definitely go with a CFI.
 
lol. Yeah. I rode right seat with a CFI and tried to land... that was funky. Just felt wrong. I didn't do it again, so I have no idea how long the transition would take, but I'm absolutely certain it'd take at least as long as ryanb says.

also, having done some IFR now, I wonder about the parallax adjustments to the instruments in front of the left seat position. Also, only my right hand has muscle memory for the Garmin 430.
 
A few lessons and you'll be comfortable. Flying right seat is the easiest part of the CFI rating!
 
I 'think' when I was training I asked my cfi and if I remember, he said roughly 10 hours before he felt comfortable.
 
Different people adjust at different rates. I was pretty comfortable flying from the right the first time I tried it. My first few landings weren't quite as smooth, but still safe and passable. I did have previous time flying tailwheels with a stick in the right hand and throttle in left though.

I also know a guy who on his first flight in the right seat over corrected in the flare and scraped the tail on a 172RG.

It doesn't take long. Just need to be careful the first time.
 
I have a tendency to drift to the right side of the runway if I haven't done it in a long time. But no big deal - but then again, I just drive a little LSA taildragger and not something more complected.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
I have a tendency to drift to the right side of the runway if I haven't done it in a long time.
Click to expand...
Yeah same here. Haven't done it enough to be comfortable with it, but it's easy to side load the first few times.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Different people adjust at different rates. I was pretty comfortable flying from the right the first time I tried it. My first few landings weren't quite as smooth, but still safe and passable. I did have previous time flying tailwheels with a stick in the right hand and throttle in left though.

I also know a guy who on his first flight in the right seat over corrected in the flare and scraped the tail on a 172RG.

It doesn't take long. Just need to be careful the first time.
Click to expand...

I seemed to be comfortable with the right seat from the first time. It took a few landings to get it just right though. Some of the other candidates took a little bit longer to get the landings down. One guy left the school because he felt he could not adjust to the right seat. After several lesson he had not completed one landing without the instructor assisting.
 
I've done right seat as an exercise to make a Flight Review more interesting. That was in a PA28-180. I'll probably do some in the RV too (with instructor). It's different and fun.
 
I didn't find switching seats to be too horrible, but I've heard for some it's a challenge at first. Couldn't tell ya what makes it "easier" or "harder" to transition, though. Sorry.

Another thing to note... read insurance policies carefully. *Some* have stipulations that if an aircraft is flown solo, the PIC must occupy the "standard" control seat. Or other odd wordings.

Most folks have read their insurnace agreement at least once, but I mention it for those who haven't bothered. You can find some interesting things in some policies.
 
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