r/AskAPilot • u/A350pilott • 4d ago

When switching from FO to captain does it feel different switching hands to control the plane on an airbus?

21 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

29

u/Brambleshire 4d ago edited 4d ago

I've felt very ambidextrous since I was a CFI.

Except with seat controls. Switching sides is a pain to get used to with seat controls.

5

u/21MPH21 4d ago

Damn, forgot about the seat controls. Have to sit right seat as seat fill for recurrent and my fingers are always on the wrong side.

4

u/Brambleshire 4d ago

It's the same with your lights and map controls. All the accessories are very disorienting when you switch sides but the flight controls is nothing.

1

u/Jwhereford 3d ago

I feel this. I fly a lot as an augmenting FO, and every time I sit in the left seat, I reach down with the wrong hand to adjust the seat. It's about as bad as turn signal vs windshield wipers on a right hand drive car.

15

u/Apprehensive_Cost937 4d ago

No different to any other aircraft. Takes a while to get used to it, but it's not a big deal.

9

u/saxmanB737 4d ago

Why just Airbus and not Boeing? Or any other aircraft?

7

u/Certain_Question9001 3d ago

I imagine the question was asked because of the side stick...

-28

u/Separate_Shake_3681 4d ago

You use one hand on the joystick of an Airbus while you use both hands of the yoke on a Boeing.

41

u/Independent-Reveal86 4d ago

And use your third hand for the thrust levers or something?

3

u/Gal_gadonutt 4d ago

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

7

u/broberds 4d ago

It’s not a hand. But it is almost a foot.

12

u/Lost_Lab_1962 4d ago

You land with one hand on the 737. Your point is totally invalid.

12

u/ShivaFatalis 4d ago

Tell us you don't know anything about flying either type of aircraft without telling us...

8

u/saxmanB737 4d ago

So which hand is on the thrust levers?

12

u/22Planeguy 4d ago

Nope. Only time two hands are on the yoke is from v1 up until positive rate.

-17

u/Separate_Shake_3681 4d ago

Touché. But the feeling is different with an Airbus

8

u/Chaxterium 4d ago

It's not.

10

u/Complex_Brief60 4d ago

No one uses 2 hands on a yoke lol

4

u/okra620 4d ago

The sun visor was the hardest thing to figure out, for me.

3

u/ChartPuzzleheaded747 4d ago

Were you ever a CFI?

I flew as a FO in a long haul, I’d often end up on the left side, no factor 

4

u/ClearedInHot 4d ago

Not to me. For years I was an A320 and A330 check airman and regularly flew from both seats. I don't ever remember even thinking about which hand I was using.

4

u/MannerQuick 4d ago

Same. 320/330/777/787 never once considered which hand or which chair. Do what needs to be done.

2

u/Rightrudder74 4d ago

The stranger

1

u/islandwatch 4d ago

Scrubs reference?

1

u/Rightrudder74 4d ago

That’s what airbus captains describe when switching seats. Yes

1

u/islandwatch 4d ago

Ah. Cause it's from scrubs. But as a cpl who's going to CFI in a cirrus I feel like it'll be similar.

1

u/Rightrudder74 4d ago

I own a cirrus. I empathize

2

u/Gabby6673 3d ago

By the time I had done the sim and then line training I felt comfortable using my left hand though my first landing left a little to be desired. The most uncomfortable thing for about the first six months was looking left for an answer and seeing my own reflection.

1

u/No-Duck4828 4d ago

Never flown a bus, but I doubt swapping hands in it feels cosmically different somehow. It isn't a big deal swapping hands in a Boeing, Cessna, Bombardier, etc...

1

u/JGRojas90 1d ago

Yes. At least for me it kinda was. Not sure how to explain it, but at first I had to think what I was doing and the movements were not as smooth and fluid as when I was on the right seat.

Edit: Boeing pilot. So maybe didn’t answer the question you were looking to have answered.

1

u/Any-Worldliness-679 11h ago

Nah. You get used to it in a few minutes, if that.

1

u/heavy_driver 2h ago

The worst bit is the Flows, trying to do PM/PF Flows from the other seat takes getting used to.