Visnu

I hope this would be my last time answering this question. In a cockpit the captain always seats in the left also known as the pilot in command(PIC). He will be in charge of decision making in the cockpit during flight as well as during emergencies

But why is he seated in the left but not on the right. On road some countries allow the driver to be seated on the left and some prefer right. I am not gonna elaborate on the driving part. There are many theories on this but none of it proves on really why they are seated left.It may be one of the chicken/egg questions and never be answered .You may say its because the pattern is a left hand circuit. But helicopter pilots are seated on the right.

THEORY #1

According to one of the more colourful, since a cavalryman’s sword hangs on his left side, he must mount his horse from the left to avoid getting his feet tangled.

The first pilots often came from the ranks of cavalry officers and it was natural for them to board their aircraft from the left side ~ Traveller

THEORY #2

Those days all single piloted aicraft are seated left even after the co-pilot seat was added. The pilots felt more comventional to fly left seated.

It’s not only pilots who board from the left. Most cyclists will hop on their bike from that side

THEORY #3

One more theory is regarding maritime. Maritime started before even wright brothers invented the first flying machine.

The maritime tradition requires ships to pass one another on the left. Port or the starboard to be specific

To avoid collisions with oncoming aircraft pilots simply adopted this tradition, and for the pilot to gauge the necessary clearance, it was required that they sit on the left, closest to the oncoming aircraft.

THEORY #4 by HAWK21M

When logging or heavy lifting, the pilot of a helo has a bubble integrated into the door window so he can lean out and look down at the load. If you were right seat and were doing so, and if you can picture it in your head, in the right seat you’d be leaning out to the right to look down, thus possibly by accident pulling up on the collective with your left hand. 

If you fly the logging/lifting in the left seat, leaning towards the left window, your left hand is on the collective but not getting ‘pulled’ as you lean. 

As I type this I can see where you’d still have a tendency to pull the cyclic with your right hand when flying left seat, but what I described is for a fact the reason that they fly left seat. From recollection and without asking my father all I can surmise is that you have your right hand on the cyclic but resting your wrist on your knee, so you are less likely to overexaggerate hand movements when leaning out towards the window.

This theory only makes sense for a right handed pilot.

THEORY #5

Back in World War 1, the planes that went meant for dog fights were build in such a way that the propeller rotates clockwise. Most of it were built with rotary engines which produces hell of a lot of torque. When it came to steering seating on the left was much more easier for the pilots to steer to the left, while sitting to the right was harder as it was against the torque. I believe because of this the pilots prefer a left turn and this is why most of the patterns are left turns. This seat also allows better visibility to the traffic coming in the opposite direction.

CONSPIRACY

Since flight was born in United States. They adapted the left hand driving? Maybe wright brothers were left handed? Or is it because they wanted you to use your stronger hand to control the throttle?

HELICOPTERS

The reason simply lies on the stability of the rotary plane.Unlike airplanes, helicopters need constant steering and direction on the “cyclic” control stick to stay in the air. 

Helicopters are designed so that the majority of people’s dominant hand can easily rest on the stick at all times. 

You may have noticed it but most of the time when you are in the passenger seat we don’t give a damn about whatever is happening in front. Even the safety demonstration by the crew members some of us prefer to stick our earphones in and ignore. So why a crew member replaces the pilot leaving just 1 pilot and the crew member inside. Is there any conspiracy or fishy about it.

The truth is, the civil aviation industry has come up with the “2 person cockpit rule”. Airlines from around the world have announced that they will begin requiring two crew members in the cockpit at all times after investigators announced that the crash of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 occurred when the co-pilot locked the pilot out of the cockpit and placed the Airbus A320 into a deliberate descent.

BBC NEWS: Germanwings flight 4U 9525 took off from Barcelona Airport in Spain heading for Duesseldorf, Germany, with 150 people on board, at 09:00 GMT on 24 March.

The Airbus 320 began travelling over the sea towards France, taking about half an hour to climb to 38,000ft (11,600m).

It should have been a two-hour flight and, in the first 20 minutes, the pilots could be heard discussing the stop-over at Barcelona with a flight attendant.

At 09:30 the plane made its final contact with air traffic control – a routine message about permission to continue on its route. Everything seemed to be going as planned.

Shortly afterwards, the captain told the co-pilot he was leaving the cockpit and asked him to take over radio communications. The cockpit door is heard opening and closing on the recording.

Seconds later, shortly before 09:31, the selected altitude was changed from 38,000 ft to 100 ft and the plane began its descent.

At 09:33, the plane’s speed increased. Air traffic control contacted the co-pilot – and continued to do so over the coming minutes – but received no answer.

A buzzer requesting access to the cockpit sounded at 09:34. Knocking and muffled voices asking for the door to be opened can be heard until the end of the recording.

At 09:39, “noises similar to violent blows on the cockpit door were recorded on five occasions” over the course of a minute. The flight crew of another plane also tried to make contact with the cockpit by radio around this time.

In the next minute – 93 seconds before impact – “low amplitude inputs” on the co-pilot’s flight controls were recorded. But the level of movement was too low to disengage the autopilot, so the input made no change to the flight path.

The “Terrain, Terrain, Pull Up, Pull up” warning was triggered at 09:40: 41 and it continues until the end of the recording at 09:41:06.

After the 9/11 incident, the cockpit doors were made stronger to prevent access to terrorists. The locking system was switched as well which means if the pilot locks it from inside no one else can access it from outside unless the pilot himself unlocks it from the inside.

These changes include requiring 2 people in the cockpit at a time. However, having 2 crews in a cockpit is not guarantee against the pilot’s suicide. There are more cases like this. Royal Air Maroc Flight ATR-42, which crashed in the Atlas mountains in 1994, which was deliberately downed by the pilot, resulting in 44 deaths. Twelve years before that a Japan Airways Flight 350 crashed after pilot Seiji Katagiri steered the plane into the sea 510m short of the runway in Tokyo. Despite the efforts of the co-pilot to pull on the control column Katagiri “was pushing forward on the control column with both hands”.

Until the new procedure is introduced this will be implemented.

There is a reason for everything in the aviation industry. From the number of crews in an aircraft to the type of meal both the pilots consume. And the numbers and letters you see on your boarding pass are no random combination. Every airline uses a specific system to scribe letters and numbers to every flight.

The letter combinations are always alphanumeric. For example, Air Asia Uses AK, Malaysia Airlines uses MH, Malindo OD, etc.

Although each airline has its own rules. They are not allowed to use more than 4 digit numbers which are from 1 to 9999. They can assign each number however they want it as long as its a combination of two alphabets and not more than 4 numbers. How these numbers bring significance to the operation of an airline. As passengers, it does not mean anything to us.

A flight number, when combined with the name of the airline and the date, identifies a particular flight. This callsign should not be confused with the tail number of the aircraft, although both can be used as a call-sign as used in general aviation. A particular aircraft may fly several different flights in one day, and different aircraft may be used for the same flight number on successive days. A number of conventions have been developed for defining flight numbers, although these vary widely from airline to airline.

Eastbound and northbound flights are traditionally assigned even numbers, while westbound and southbound flights have odd numbers.

For Example, SQ516 Operates from Singapore To Kolkata. 516 is an even number which means its either operating towards NORTH/WEST and returns flight is going to be +1 (SQ517) as it is going to be in the reciprocal direction

Other airlines will use an odd number for an outbound flight and use the next even number for the reverse inbound flight.

For destinations served by multiple flights per day, numbers tend to increase during the day. Hence, a flight from point A to point B might be flight 6266 and the return flight from B to A would be 6227, while the next pair of flights on the same route would usually be assigned codes 6228 and 6229.

Generally, the lower the flight number, the more important that route is to the airline. The very important flight number likely relates to the airline’s history. Malaysia Airlines’ very first important destination is London is MH01.

Interesting points to add, airlines usually will retire particular flight numbers that involve in major tragedy.

MH will use single to triple digits flight numbers for regional and international flights and 4-digits flight numbers for domestic flights.

Due to superstition, they don’t really operate on 13 or 666. Certain flight numbers may not be used due to certain incidents such as AA11 after the September 11, 2011, attack. To be closer, it would the MH370 & MH17 tragedy.

What about code-sharing flights?

You bought a ticket for a flight. You show up to the airport and find your flight number on the departures board. So far, everything is normal. But when you show up to the gate, the airline you thought you were flying is nowhere to be seen and it’s a different airline’s logo on the side of the plane. You just experienced codeshare.

This provides clearer routing for the customer, allowing a customer to book travel from point A to C through point B under one carrier’s code, instead of a customer booking from point A to B under one code, and from point B to C under another code. This is not only a superficial addition as cooperating airlines also strive to synchronize their schedules.

There are several types of code-sharing arrangements:

• Block space codeshare: A commercial (marketing) airline purchases a fixed number of seats from the administrating (operating/prime) carrier. A fixed price is typically paid, and the seats are kept away from the administrating carrier’s inventory. The marketing airline decides on its own which booking classes the seats are sold in (the block of seats are optimised just like another aircraft cabin).
• Free flow codeshare: The airlines’ inventory and reservation systems communicate in real-time by messaging, commonly IATA AIRIMP/PADIS messaging (TTY and EDIFACT). A booking class mapping is defined between the airlines. No seats are locked to any of the airlines, and any airline can sell any number of seats.
• Capped free flow: Basically the same as above, but a capping (maximum number of seats) are defined for each of the marketing airlines participating in the codeshare with the administrating carrier.

Flying restrictions for pilots with a range of medical conditions could be lifted after the European aviation regulator announced a review aimed at relaxing the rules. Back in 2018 EASA restricts commercial pilots with HIV to multi-pilot operations

Pilots suffering from a variety of illnesses including HIV, asthma, severe allergies & cardiac illness were totally banned from taking the right or left-hand seat in the cockpits. They were strictly prohibited particularly for new trainees. There was no way for them to do anything about it. Till a recent rule change by the governing body EASA UK Civil Aviation Authority.

After pressure by the UK CAA, EASA-the body which regulates the rules around the continent decided to lift its restriction to those people living with HIV.EASA has now said it will conduct a review of how medical certificates are issued for HIV positive candidates, with a view to extending this to other medical conditions. They might have to go for medical checkups every 3-6 months, unlike other pilots who do it annually. This is to make sure that the pilot is competent and the virus does not reduce his flying performance.

Applicants who are HIV positive may be assessed as fit if a full investigation provides no evidence of HIV associated diseases that might give rise to incapacitating symptoms. Frequent review of the immunological status and neurological evaluation by an appropriate specialist should be carried out by the HIV positive patient from time to time. A cardiological evaluation may also be required, depending on the medication and severity of the illness.

The authority now wants those restrictions to be relaxed further, meaning HIV positive pilots could undertake their training in the same way cadets living without the disease currently do, including allowing them to fly solo.

Applicants with signs or symptoms of an AIDS-defining condition should be assessed as UNFIT. As a result, EASA toughened rules on pilot medicals – including adding drugs and alcohol screening, as well as a comprehensive mental health assessment.

Experts say there have been no known accidents attributed to pilots because of the virus or medication used to treat it, and those with existing medical conditions are more closely monitored than recruits with a clean bill of health.

EASA has now said it will conduct a review of how medical certificates are issued for HIV positive candidates, with a view to extending this to other medical conditions. However its better to get verified with one of the Aviation Medical Examiners.

Read More: https://pilotvisnu.com/medical/

Reference: https://life4me.plus/en/news/pilot-5835/

An HIV positive pilot in the UK has made history by becoming the first newly-qualified pilot with HIV in Europe

James Bushe, originally from Stoke-on-Trent in the Midlands, challenged the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in December 2017 to change its rules which prevented HIV positive people training and qualifying as pilots.

At the time the CAA refused him the medical certificate needed to gain a commercial license, stating that European regulations prevented it granting the certificate to someone who was HIV positive.

Speaking to the BBC, James explained:

“The reason is that the CAA considered there was a risk of that HIV positive person becoming incapacitated during the flight, potentially. That rule would also have covered other conditions, like diabetes.

“The evidence for this was studies done in the early 90s.

“Someone that is on successful treatment and living with HIV now, is undetectable. They can’t pass that virus on to others and they pose no risk to themselves or anyone around them.

“It didn’t make any sense. I wanted to challenge it.”

Eventually, due to pressure from advocacy groups like HIV Scotland and the National AIDS Trust, the CAA overturned the ruling.

James has been flying for Scottish regional airline, Loganair since November. James has now completed his training to qualify to regularly fly the airline’s Embraer 145 Regional Jets from its base at Glasgow Airport – thus becoming the first newly-qualified HIV positive pilot in Europe.

“HIV should be no barrier to anybody pursuing whatever their dreams are and becoming whatever they want to be.”

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