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It's about ... why is the left seat the command seat?

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Tinman57:
  LOL!   I can still remember this question from ground school and flight training.  The pilot sits on the left seat because the default air-traffic pattern is left, therefore the pilot can see the runway better on the downwind leg of the pattern.

  So, if the active runway is North (0 degrees), you would enter the traffic pattern from a 45 degree angle to the North from the east, and then turn North when approx 1/4 mile from the runway (a lot depends there), putting the runway parallel to the aircraft to the pilots left.  The pilot then has a good reference to the runway for turning "Base" and then turning to "Final" approach, and also gives him/her a better view of other air traffic.

Edit:  I changed the second line to read "North from the east" from "North from the west".  Got it bass-ackwards.  lol

barney:
LOL!   I can still remember this question from ground school and flight training.  The pilot sits on the left seat because the default air-traffic pattern is left, therefore the pilot can see the runway better on the downwind leg of the pattern.
-Tinman57 (December 08, 2012, 07:16 PM)
--- End quote ---

That makes sense ... and begs another question  :P.

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