When you finish WOFT and get sent to a unit do you sit in the left seat until you get enough experience? If not, then who sits in the left seat? Is there any difference?
Well, Numbers, I believe you do sit in the left seat until you've gained enough experience and can demonstrate command proficiency in the aircraft....unless you're talking about a -64 in which case you sit in the front seat and eventually transition yourself rearward. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong as I'm no Army pilot.
Once you get back to your unit, you are RL3 in your aircraft. This means you must fly with an instructor pilot and demonstrate proficiency in all base tasks. Generally, this will all be done in the right seat - to get you training towards becoming a PIC.
Once you are RL2, then you will fly with other pilots in the unit, but still be flying with IP's also to master mission tasks. during this period, you and the other pilots you fly with basically flip a coin to decide who sits where - it doesn't matter.
There are exceptions, of course, and subtle differences between aircraft types, but generally, once you progress to RL2 or higher, it doesn't matter where you sit.
The biggest difference I can think of is in Apaches verses Chinooks. In the Apache, the front seater and rear seater have very distinct duties and responsibilities. In the Chinook, PC and PI can sit in either seat, and flying from left or right makes virtually no difference (except during start-up and shut-down).
Again, not the gospel, but generally the way it is in the military.
Both seats have the same instrumentation and controls (not counting little things like the parking brake handle). There is nothing that the right seat pilot can do that the other cannot.
One other thing I've experienced in the Chinook is that it is much easier to switch back and forth from right to left than in smaller, more traditional (tail rotor equipped) helicopters.
For me, this is because the different visual perspective from right or left seat is less dramatic than it is in smaller helicopters. Also, because of the tandem rotor configuration, the anti-torque properties that make a "traditional" helicopter feel different from one seat or the other don't apply in the Chinook - ie: the Chinook doesn't hover with one side lower than the other, there is no translating tendency to correct for, and with it's extraordinary max gross weight and AFCS, assymetrical loading and other changes in Cg are difficult to detect from the cockpit.
In other words, it FEELS and FLIES the same from either seat - if that makes sense.
VERY interesting. It does make sense. I've never gotten a good look at the controls. That's the helicopter I'm supposed to learn to fly. I didn't realize that there was a tactile difference between the left and right seats of conventional helicopters.
Agree with Palmfish. Once you make RL2, you will be trained to fly from either seat. While in RL progression you will do most of your flying from the right seat, just like at Rucker. You will get as good in the left seat as the right in time. The traditional pilot in command seat for helicopters is the right, but that is not worried about in the Blackhawk community. You have almost the exact controls in the 60 seat to seat. PCs will fly in either seat to stay sharp in both seats.
In Blackhawks I made guys in RL progression switch seats every flight no matter what RL they were. After they they can work it out with whatever PC they were flying with.
Ok thanks for your help and also this is just a general question for any aviator here out of flight school - when you go on a mission how is the flight divided between the 2 pilots?
The cockpit is a very professional and organized environment, and it is managed by the very professional and organized Army Aviators who are piloting the aircraft.
I know you are, and I appreciate your curiosity and interest.
I suggest if you are really serious about pursuing aviation as career, you might visit a unit near you and speak to some of the pilots. I'm sure they'd be happy to take some time to talk to you, show you the aircraft, etc.
You'd get more information in a 30 minute visit than you'll ever get from the likes of an old-timer like me typing at 15 WPM...
In the OH-58D, you sit right seat until you demonstrate enough proficiency that the IPs swear on a stack of bibles that you will not kill any of the rest of us (they call it RL2). Then they [the IPs] stick you in the left seat to see if you will throw up on us if we maneuver wildly while you attempt to view the world through a 5x5-inch screen. If you're successful at doing all those tasks from the left seat without throwing up on the IPs, they pronounce you RL1 and toss you to the wolves, whereupon the rest of us will do our damnedest to see how much you can take in the left seat without throwing up. Once we're really sure that you're not going to throw up from the left seat, we stick you in the right seat to see if you're good enough to keep us from getting sick in the left seat. Finally, after all that is done and you've proven that we can't get you sick in the left seat and that you won't get us sick in the left seat, we see if you've learned enough to direct us how to NOT get you sick while you sit in the left seat. If you pass that, then we will recommend to the IP and the Commander that they evaluate you to be a PC.
