Changing commander in the air (can a non-FI PIC sit in the RHS)

When I sit in the right seat, I generally only want to be a passenger. I am not interested in trying to be a wannabe instructor and so forth. I don't want to have the roles changed in flight as my mindset is not in the PIC zone. Unfortunately I have been forced into PIC position against my will. Two stand out. IMC in mountains, take over or die situation and "you have control" on short finals when PIC decided the wind was beyond their capabilities. I have become rather shy with whom I fly now and prefer to fly on my own. I have also flown with a few pilots that have an opinion about their own abilities that boggle the mind BUT that could be a topic for another thread.

So far the fact that the safety pilot on the R/H seat in most cases has not the appropriate instrumentation in front of him was not discussed. If the plane inadvertently enters IMC the situation gets critical. Shall they change seats? Turn back towards VMC? Should he be able to fly the aircraft looking at the left-hand instruments? Shall they never depart without a fully functioning autopilot?

I would say it would be good for safety pilot if rated to fly from right looking at instruments on left and be able to recover plane from unusual attitude from right if in IMC.......... You don't have time to change seats and if in IMC with a stressed out PIC the return to VMC may not be an immediate option. The aircraft I fly don't have working autopilots. :-)

I would not advise to fly in IMC from the right seat if the a/c doesn't have a full set of flight instruments on the right side. With a Cirrus you can do it if you have Perspective or R9 glass cockpit which allow to put the PFD on the right screen. With my Aviydne equipped SR22 that's not possible and I personally think the flight instruments are too far away.

So far the fact that the safety pilot on the R/H seat in most cases has not the appropriate instrumentation in front of him was not discussed. If the plane inadvertently enters IMC the situation gets critical.

That is why becoming an instrument instructor requires 5 hours of practical instrument flying from the right hand seat. But it is not really difficult, one gets used to it quickly. Most importantly, the main instrument, the attitude indicator, does not suffer from parallax error when viewed from the side. And then, the left hand instruments in a Pa28 are closer to the right hand seat pilot than the LH instruments to the LHS Pilot in a Boeing. And they somehow manage to read their instruments in Boeings too.

Flying a left hand AI from the right seat can't be that hard.

Here in the US, we log time for two main reasons, first to maintain currency to carry passengers, fly at night, or fly IFR, and second, to meet experience requirements in order to qualify for a new rating or privilege. There is very little other flying that needs to be logged unless one is an instructor. Here, the distinction between "acting as pilot in command" and logging "pilot in command" causes a lot of confusion. The person acting as pilot in command is the person responsible for the safety of the flight. I like the European use of the words "aircraft commander" as it is less likely to be confused with logging requirements. Logging is a totally different subject, at least under FAA rules. Under the FAA rules, there are no restrictions on which seat the acting PIC must sit in. Under 61.51 a pilot flying an aircraft certified for single pilot operation may log PIC when:

a) the pilot is rated to fly the aircraft and is the sole manipulator of the controls

b) the pilot is the sole occupant of the aircraft

c) when the acting PIC is a required crew member because the regulations under which the flight is operated(this case covers a safety pilot.

An authorized instructor may log PIC anytime they are providing flight instruction.

Pilots in the US will use case c) when both pilots are rated to fly an aircraft and one pilot A is under the hood in simulated IFR flight and the safety pilot B is acting as PIC. Assuming pilot A also flies the takeoff and landing, if a cross country is involved, Pilot A may log PIC for the entire flight and as a cross country flight. Pilot B may log the time that Pilot A was under the hood, but not log the other time or the cross country time. So doing things this way allows both pilots to log PIC, A for the entire XC, B for most of it but not count it towards XC time.

Landing visually from the RHS takes a couple of hours to learn; and flying on instruments from the RHS takes a bit of practice, but not much.

Before I had my instructor rating, I would not have considered flying from the RHS; but now the side does not matter at all.

I only occasionally fly from the RHS on the LHS instruments (mainly during the short bit of IMC training as part of the PPL syllabus) and for me it takes a bit of effort to get an accurate scan going with the instrument parallax - wings level on the AI does not look wings level, so it takes more concentration. But at that point the student is flying...

With the AI working, I don't think I would have ANY trouble regaining control. Limited panel will be more difficult because of the position of the turn coordinator, but it should good enough to regain control - not sure I could do a good limited panel approach from the RHS.

On a glass cockpit, there is no parallax so it should be easier.