Forum: General F-16 forum

The right handed stick thing seems pretty cool but I'd have to imagine that most lefties have a little bit more precision in their left hand. Would that make it tougher for them to fly these aircraft or is it pretty easy to get used to it? After all, we do live in a right handed world and it's not the first right hand-centric adaptation that most lefty pilots would have to make.

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Last edited by lamoey on Apr 12, 2012 - 10:49 PM; edited 1 time in total

Even an F/A-18 has the trottle on the left, so the pilot still have to use his right hand to do the flying, so I doubt it makes any difference. When I flew C-172's I found it strange to fly with my left hand and do the trottle with my right, but that only lasted a couple of hours.

By the time most drivers get into the Viper or Raptor or Lightning they've already gone thru several screenings, UPT, LIFT, etc., which all use the throttle left/stick right setup. So coordination prolly won't be an issue. The SSC is the hurdle when they get into the front line jets and by all accounts doesn't take that long to get the hang of.

I had almost 20,000 hours flying with my left hand on the throttles and the right on the stick / yoke before switching to throttles on the right and yoke on the left. After about 10 hours flying time it was a non-event. (My landings are equally as bad whichever way the controls are configured.) In all Airbus aircraft since the A320 they have a FBW stick on either side of the cockpit. (Captain flies with the left hand, co-pilot with the right.) After a few hours in either seat lefties and righties are perfectl;y comfortable.

Yes, I agree , I thinkg it is just a matter to get use and it should not be too difficult.

I'm a lefty. This is a non-issue. Kind of like driving a manual transmission car, and being concerned that the shifter is on the right (US) or on the left (UK).

In some respects, lefty's have it easy: when you're writing notes, taking a 9-line, or whatever, you can keep your right hand on the stick while writing. Granted, if you are right handed, you can simply fly with your left hand while you write... but that's not really feasible in the F-16.

huggy wrote:

Granted, if you are right handed, you can simply fly with your left hand while you write... but that's not really feasible in the F-16.

That's why they included the autopilot heading hold/altitude hold functions. For when the righties have to write stuff down. Or prep for piddle pack use. Wink

Meteor wrote:

I had almost 20,000 hours flying with my left hand on the throttles and the right on the stick / yoke before switching to throttles on the right and yoke on the left. After about 10 hours flying time it was a non-event. (My landings are equally as bad whichever way the controls are configured.) In all Airbus aircraft since the A320 they have a FBW stick on either side of the cockpit. (Captain flies with the left hand, co-pilot with the right.) After a few hours in either seat lefties and righties are perfectl;y comfortable.

Forum: General F-16 forum

Is it tough for lefties to fly the F-16 and -22?