Switching Hands

[MattS]

Long story short, I've been flying in all kinds of Sims using my left hand since ~2008...mostly due to flying left-handed in real small airplanes for awhile when I took flight lessons.

 

Fast forward to now, and due to my desk arrangement and desire to replicate the setup in actual fighter planes a little more closely I have shifted everything over to fly right-handed.

 

LOLOL...even though it is my dominant hand, it's like it belongs to some stranger for all the control I seem to have over it! I guess that with my left hand, I had a ton of "muscle memory" that will need to be relearned ?

 

Anybody else experience something like this and have an idea how long it takes for the brain to re-map itself? Fortunately my control setup (buttons, axes etc.) are mirrored so that is no problem. 

 

[BlitzPig_EL]

I have, because of my work, the opportunity to drive right hand drive cars from Great Britain from time to time.  Early MGs, Rolls/Bentley, Tornado Talisman, Lotus Eleven Le Mans, to name a few.  Operating the gear box with the left hand is a bit awkward at first, but a couple of miles in and it seems quite normal.  I suspect that a couple of hours of stick time and you will be right as rain.

[GregP]

Back in the late 90s I got my first right-handed HOTAS system and upgraded from a standalone stick with which I’d been using my left and dominant hand. At the time it seemed to be an extremely difficult transition but now that I look back on it I cannot imagine ever trying to ‘fly’ with my left again—despite it still being my dominant hand for everything else.  I can’t recall how much time it took but I don’t think it was that long, maybe a few weeks of regular practice.

[Ram399]

I've been playing flight sims since I was a kid and have always done so with my dominant right hand- but when I actually got to flight school I was taught to fly with my left while my right held the throttle in a rather unexpected reversal.  So now I fly in reality with my left hand and in IL2 with my right hand, its kind of an odd system but its worked so far lol, it might help that I also play the drums and have a pretty decent amount of limb independence though.

[Rjel]

I once heard that being ambidextrous was like dating twins. Or was it when flying twins? I can’t remember anymore. Either way, options are always good.  

[357th_KW]

Over the course of my flying career I’ve flown quite a bit both right and left handed.  The first time you swap it’s pretty tough, but you get used to it pretty quickly.  The next swap is a little easier and eventually it’s just not a huge deal to switch back and forth.

[Garven]

I used to use a left hand joystick with a mouse in the right hand to look around.  Switched to right hand joystick due to the lack of throttles set up to be used in the right hand.  Took me about a month to get comfortable with it, but I was also learning rudder peddles and TrackIR at the same time IIRC.

Edited May 9, 2020 by US93_Furlow

[Tipsi]

I think the best thing you can do is keep at it.

 

Dont worry bro, your muscle memory will form.

[Jaegermeister]

Oddly enough for me, I had a center stick in a cockpit setup a while back and it was a bit hard to get used to, but very handy to use the left hand to fly. When I went back to a right hand stick HOTAS, it took just as long to get used to it. Maybe a week.

I drive with my left hand because I learned how to drive with a manual transmission and my right hand was switching gears. I think using your non dominant hand to drive or fly is not really a disadvantage and your subconscious brain gets used to it quickly. 

[MattS]

25 minutes ago, Jaegermeister said:

I drive with my left hand because I learned how to drive with a manual transmission and my right hand was switching gears.

 

I drive with my left hand because my right hand has my coffee mug in it ?

 

(I can drive a manual...not very well!)

[Lusekofte]

7 minutes ago, MattS said:

I can drive a manual...not very well

Norway are raised with manual gears, my first time driving automatic , everybody went on the windscreen when I pushed the non existing clutch that instead was the oversized brake pedal. Now I got a van with manual and the rest is automatic. My brain work a little more driving it. 
I think changing hand in simpit train your brain to adapt quicker and are healthy

[MattS]

2 minutes ago, 216th_LuseKofte said:

everybody went on the windscreen when I pushed the non existing clutch that instead was the oversized brake pedal. 

 

My wife did the same thing to me years ago LOL. Her truck was manual and my car was auto. We took turns driving on a long trip and she did a Full Performance Stop...scared the hell out of me!

Edited May 9, 2020 by MattS

[BlitzPig_EL]

Try driving a Model T Ford sometime.  Three pedals, none of which control the throttle, that is a lever on the steering column.

Left pedal is the high and low gear clutch, center pedal is brake, and right pedal is the reverse gear clutch.

Then you have a "handbrake" lever on the left that selects between low gear only, or high gear with the ability to use low with the pedal, and all the way back engages the hand brake.  Oh, and do remember to advance the spark timing with the lever on the left side of the steering column as you accelerate to you max cruise speed of 25mph, and also twiddle with the carb fuel mixture which is a little rotating deal made from bent rod, that when pulled out also activates the choke for starting.

 

kthanksbye....

 

 

 

[Ribbon]

I switch hands only when doing one "particular thing" and it feels good!?

[Lusekofte]

5 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

Try driving a Model T Ford sometime.  Three pedals, none of which control the throttle, that is a lever on the steering column.

Left pedal is the high and low gear clutch, center pedal is brake, and right pedal is the reverse gear clutch.

Then you have a "handbrake" lever on the left that selects between low gear only, or high gear with the ability to use low with the pedal, and all the way back engages the hand brake.  Oh, and do remember to advance the spark timing with the lever on the left side of the steering column as you accelerate to you max cruise speed of 25mph, and also twiddle with the carb fuel mixture which is a little rotating deal made from bent rod, that when pulled out also activates the choke for starting.

 

kthanksbye....

 

 

 

Was it not the model T that brought cars to the commoners? 
I heard it had unusual way of operating it,

not impossible. How to get it going in a hill

[BlitzPig_EL]

The car that put the US on wheels.  For us with our long taught muscle memory on how to drive a car, they do seem difficult, but for the millions that had never driven a car before, it was all new so easier to learn.  They sold 15 million of them, the largest selling auto until the VW Type 1 came along.

[Jaegermeister]

6 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

Try driving a Model T Ford sometime. 

 

kthanksbye....

 

 

 

 

I thought you drove Lotuses and Rolls Royces and stuff... Model T seems a bit pedestrian.

 

?

[BlitzPig_EL]

I drive anything that comes through the shop doors.

 

How about a 1940 Packard commercial chassis with a combination hearse/ambulance body by Henney? 

I've done a lot of work on that one for my customer.

 

 

[AndyJWest]

@BlitzPig: A combined ambulance and hearse? I'm not sure I'd want one of those to turn up if I needed a ride to hospital. ?

 

Getting back to the original question, I'm left handed, and for years have flown with a Saitek ST290 stick with my left hand. It being long past due for replacement, I've now got myself a Thrustmaster T.1600M HOTAS, which requires having the joystick on the right. I've only given it a brief test today, but from first impressions I don't think that adapting to it will be too difficult. I suspect that getting used to all the new switch settings will be more of an issue than the basic controls.

[MattS]

7 hours ago, AndyJWest said:

@BlitzPig: A combined ambulance and hearse? I'm not sure I'd want one of those to turn up if I needed a ride to hospital. ?

 

Getting back to the original question, I'm left handed, and for years have flown with a Saitek ST290 stick with my left hand. It being long past due for replacement, I've now got myself a Thrustmaster T.1600M HOTAS, which requires having the joystick on the right. I've only given it a brief test today, but from first impressions I don't think that adapting to it will be too difficult. I suspect that getting used to all the new switch settings will be more of an issue than the basic controls.

 

I'm adapting pretty well...what I noticed was immediately missing was the more nuanced stuff like banking into a turn and then looking off to the side at some bad guys; with my left hand I would instinctively back off the roll as needed or give some back pressure based on small visual cues...with the right I would grossly overbank or let the nose fall down. That type of thing. Same for gunnery.

 

It is coming up to speed quickly though, like the correct mental signals still exist but they were going down the wrong arm. Fascinating stuff I think.

[MattS]

22 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

Try driving a Model T Ford sometime.  Three pedals, none of which control the throttle, that is a lever on the steering column.

Left pedal is the high and low gear clutch, center pedal is brake, and right pedal is the reverse gear clutch.

Then you have a "handbrake" lever on the left that selects between low gear only, or high gear with the ability to use low with the pedal, and all the way back engages the hand brake.  Oh, and do remember to advance the spark timing with the lever on the left side of the steering column as you accelerate to you max cruise speed of 25mph, and also twiddle with the carb fuel mixture which is a little rotating deal made from bent rod, that when pulled out also activates the choke for starting.

 

kthanksbye....

 

 

 

 

Little did he know, Henry Ford was training up future P-38 pilots ? 

[MattS]

Update: as you guys said, after just these couple of weeks it feels like I have flown right-handed for my entire life.

 

The brain truly is an amazing and wonderful thing. I will have to get one someday ?