Why we board aircraft from the left?Because horses were mounted from the left. The early pioneers of flight often had experience of horses and out of habbit boarded their primative aircraft from the left. World war 1 aces carried on the practise, infact Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (the red barron) was an acomplished horse rider giving him excellent balance, a skill that was usefull in his fokker triplane. Overtime people become accustomed to this and the idea stuck.Dave

>Why we board aircraft from the left?>>Because horses were mounted from the left. The early pioneers>of flight often had experience of horses and out of habbit>boarded their primative aircraft from the left. World war 1>aces carried on the practise, infact Manfred Albrecht Freiherr>von Richthofen (the red barron) was an acomplished horse rider>giving him excellent balance, a skill that was usefull in his>fokker triplane. Overtime people become accustomed to this and>the idea stuck.>>DaveSo now I guess the question is: why were horses mounted from the left? :( Marco

errrrmm..I'll check when a documentry about horses is on Discovery..Dave

Really! :-)..That explains why I enter my car from the RIGHT! Perhaps the early car designers didn't ride horses :-)Another one for mythbusters :-lolCheers,Roger

The Warriors, Bonanza, Travel Air I fly you enter from the right.

You're a Pom then or an Aussie, Roger (grin)?!Jaap.

There are some exceptions as Chris pointed out, just that traditionally aircraft and horses were mounted from the left.Cars, now thats an interesting one. About 1/4 of the world drives on the left, meaning the driver enters the vehicle on the right hand door. It all stems from the days of the British empire which spread the weird and wonderfull ways of British custom over the world. Up to the late 1700's, everybody travelled on the left side of the road because it's the sensible option for feudal, violent societies of mostly right-handed people.Jousting knights with their lances under their right arm naturally passed on each other's right, and if you passed a stranger on the road you walked on the left to ensure that your protective sword arm was between yourself and him.Napolion changed this, he was left handed so told his armies to march on the right. The drive-on-the-right policy was adopted by the USA, which was anxious to cast off all remaining links with its British colonial past.DaveEssex, UK

>You're a Pom then or an Aussie, Roger (grin)?!Both actually! :-lol Born UK (Scotland), migrated to Australia in 1946Struth, a fair dinkum true blue strine. The DH Tiger Moth is about the oldest plane in Australia and both the fwd and aft cockpits have fold-down access panels and can be entered from either side. Edit The vast majority of early WW1 aircraft however ARE accessed from the left. My theory is that the way we use our brains determines why we conventionally enter an aircraft from the left.We read from leftwe count from the left ...ie. we think from the left.ergo we enter aircraft from the left.Of course there are exceptions to every rule.If the Japanese had invented aircraft things may well have been totally different. :-lolRoger

>>Jousting knights with their lances under their right arm>naturally passed on each other's right, and if you passed a>stranger on the road you walked on the left to ensure that>your protective sword arm was between yourself and him.>>Napolion changed this, he was left handed so told his armies>to march on the right. The drive-on-the-right policy was>adopted by the USA, which was anxious to cast off all>remaining links with its British colonial past.>>Dave>Essex, UK>>This is probably the reason why we traditionaly mount our horses from the left.....to keep our 'weapons hand'(right hand) free. My question is, why do we mount elephants from the trunk? Is this some kind of Hannibalism thing?John M

As an extension of this, swords are worn on the left, and it would be hard to mount a horse with the sword in the way. I suppose it would be possible to wear the sword on the right, but this would be awkward to draw for a right-handed person. scott s..

I was just going to say that- well, the warrior anyway.I do have say- entering from the right feels weird- A little akward actually. I think right-handed people have an easier time entering from the left, since both your favored limbs (right arm, right leg) can kind of set the pace.In most conventional airplanes, people do most of the flying left-handed. I think flying with my right hand would feel a little weird? What do you instructors think? Was it odd the first few times?

>>In most conventional airplanes, people do most of the flying>left-handed. I think flying with my right hand would feel a>little weird? What do you instructors think? Was it odd the>first few times?The right hand on the yoke, left hand on the throttles didn't effect me as much as having to look at the instruments on the left side,( C-150's and 172's rarely had dual instrumentation in our primary trainers). Of course most instruments are realy not necessary when flying low and slow in VFR conditions so it realy tended to improve my flying skills by not looking at the instruments. Just give me an altemeter to see if I'm going up/down or in level flight and an oil pressure gauge to see if the prop will keep turning and I'm all set to go.John M

The only time I fly with my right hand is when I fly the Citabria. Doesn't effect me too much since that is also my joystick sim hand.