Hi RP,

I've once had the chance to sit in a Spitfire MK V cockpit at the Malta Aviation museum. The restorator of the airplane explained to me the reason for the ring formed yoke in the Spit as this: if you got wounded on your hand you could still stick your lower arm into the hole and maneuver, which would be nearly impossible if you'd have a stick.

I'm no military pilot but to me it also makes more sense that the pilot would have one hand on the flight stick and the other on the throttle during a dogfight. The exception could be when pulling out of a high speed dive where you could set the throttle to idle and use both hands to fight the high control forces. Otherwise you'd want to leave your hand on the throttle since you could be too slow to reach them with high G-forces applied, and you'd want to be able to react very quickly to set the power you need in any situation. I'd also expect a trained pilot to have sufficient muscle in his right arm to handle the control forces in most maneuvers.

MAC

I think with modern aircraft assists do allow you to fly one handed although just like when I used to race cars whilst I could in theory steer with one hand I always had both for precision control. Back in the day I believe they would fly one handed whilst relaxed and then as has been stated under load or stressful situations two hands were used except where throttle adjustments where needed. Maybe need Chowbirds take as he's our resident commercial flyer- do you fly one arm on the yoke and the other on the side of the window???

That all said these guys seem to be one handed flyers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32JJm...e_gdata_player

ive read that a spit was flown two handed,because of air compression,the faster you go the stiffer the controls . modern planes have hydraulics

This may be an odd comment, but the A340 "Airbus" is flown by a joystick. Much similar to the Thrustmaster :-)

Not only that, its a sidestick and the captain has to fly lefthanded.


You didn't read my previous post saying the left hand should be moveable just like in racing car games when you change gear in a stick shift car.
Where you are getting your information about it being rare for WWII pilots to use both hands on the stick even in combat? Because that is nonsense. Pilots often needed brute force at high speeds. It is not compareable with modern day piloting.

Awesome video and thanks for posting.

Is that the old twin aerocommander plane?

Ok Pope, maybe I came on too strong here. Yes it would be pretty cool for a video game to have the pilot move his hands around in the cockpit. I just think it would be more realistic if his hands spent most of the time on throttle and stick and very little time with both hands on the stick. Where do I get that idea? I’m an ATP with over 12,000 flight hours, and less than half of that time is in modern jets with boosted controls. Pilots who fly with both hands are called “ham fisted” and seldom even get to solo, let alone move on to fighters LoL

Every airline captain flies left handed, not just on the ‘Bus, so he can get to the throttle quadrant which is between the 2 seats. Flying left handed is something you learn when you upgrade from the right seat to the left. With most airlines a captain is required to pass a "right seat checkout" every so often, just in case the company needs him to fly as an FO. This is all too common when the airlines are furloughing, and switching sides like that can make for some interesting trips.

Thanks for the Red Bull video Gilly. I seldom watch those races because I can’t stand the idiot commentary that is normally associated with televised sporting events, at least here in the states, but some of those YouTube clips are rather enjoyable. I was surprised that he carries so much instrumentation since it’s strictly a VFR kind of flying and all those G forces are very hard on flight instruments, but like he said that stuff is mostly for ferrying the plane from race to race. I do kinda wonder how often they need to replace those very expensive gauges?

Glad you like the video BurtonBoy. You’re correct about Bob Hoover’s plane, it’s an Aero Commander Shrike. I’ve got about 300 hours in one but of coarse I never flew it near as well as Bob :-P I did roll it once or twice (don’t tell my boss). It does not have boosted controls.

No Worries :)

Thats interesting about the captain flying left handed, but don't most airliners have steering yokes, so it can't be that much difference switching sides of the cockpit right? , I would think it would be like driving a foreign car with the steering wheel on the other side than you are used to. I guess in a light plane you just worry about accidently opening the door when automaticly reaching for the throttle lol.

I still believe that warbird pilots mostly flew hands on stick, especialy in combat. Just like a rally driver has both hands on the wheel as much as posible and has the gear shifter placed as close as posible to the wheel.

Nope, an airplane is not a rally car. A rally car controls throttle with his feet and doesn't bank or pull G. Flying combat with your hand away from the throttle would be like racing a rally car with your feet off the pedals. One of the students where I fly on weekends is a BMW racing school instuctor and he's a terrible pilot, for a long time we were wondering if he would ever solo. He's a nice guy though and I sure hope he doesn't read this forum :-P

This guy is clearly flying with one hand on the yoke..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2MRxmfoeWE

However RAF pilots were advised to use 2 hands when firing, to brace, mainly.

I've read one account where the pilot of a Spitfire put both feet on the instrument panel and 2 hands on the stick to get out of a dive... That would be a cool animation.. Desperation mode!

I think the basic answer is they used 2 hands only if they needed to. I don't think you'd abandon the throttle in combat unless you had to. (I can't think why, all spitfire pilots say that you only had to twitch your hand and the aircraft twitched too, a very responsive aircraft).
The only time Spitfires stiffened up was at very high speed.
Fact is you'd pass out from the G before you ever needed 2 hands because a Spitfire got 'heavy'.

I've got 100's of RAF pilots BoB accounts and there is reference to throttle adjustments, turning the sights on, adjusting the sights etc, all during combat. The only time I see any reference to stiff controls is when the Aircraft was up near 400mph.