Monday, November 29, 2010

Which hand do you drive with?

or do you use both as you should? one hand at 10 o'clock and one at 2 o'clock, keeping your hands carefully in those positions as you turn or go straight.

I'm finding my driving changing the more I fly. For one thing I've noticed I drive one handed more often. I don't know if my CFI would call this a Negative Transference of Skills (as he says those words I can hear him saying the capital letters) or a Positive Transference of Skills (also with capital letters).

In a 172 (and probably other planes too) you use one hand on the yolk and the other on other stuff (throttle, flaps, trim wheel, carb heat, etc.) or as he likes to say "Left hand air speed, right hand altitude". But I've flown from both seats. In the Pinch Hitter training, I sat in the right seat because that's where the non-pilot sits. When in the right seat, right hand is air speed and left hand is altitude.

This is where it got weird this weekend. I was driving down to my run Saturday morning nice and slow. It was wet so I wasn't in a hurry at all. I was thinking about flying as I drove. I realized after a while I was steering with my left hand, my right hand was resting calmly on my thigh. Later that same day, I was thinking about flying with my husband (which means me in the right seat), I realized I was driving with my right hand, left resting calmly on my thigh.

I've noticed my husband drives left handed almost all the time. His right hand is rarely on the wheel, its usually on the e-brake. The other thing he does, which I thought was amusing, is he parks his car when waiting to pick up or drop off someone like he's pulled up in the run-up area and waiting for clearance to depart.

Weird.

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