The author of the paper I mentioned would prefer that we not suck him
into this discussion.  Certainly understandable as I'm not very happy
to be in it myself.  Besides, I doubt that anyone else would be really
interested in the details.  (Okay, so I'm weird.)

The author did say that I may post a summary of his e-mail (a
summary of a summary).



Summary on

The research was conducted for NASA primarily to investigate the
viability of side-stick controllers in GA aircraft.

"A force-feel side stick controller (using hydraulics for force feed
back) was mounted in three different locations for a pilot seated in
the left seat.   Stick locations were on his left side, in the center
(as in the space shuttle), and on the right side of the pilot.  A
fairly sophisticated motion based simulator was used."  [It isn't
clear to me whether this refers to the flight model or full-motion
"feel".]  "Flights were also flown with a standard force-feel yoke and
center floor mounted stick."
 
Both left and right dominant pilots were tested on typical (IFR/VFR)
tasks and the motion base was driven by various wind conditions.

The authors "bottom line" was that even pilots who swore they
couldn't fly with the left hand [assume right dominant pilots] agreed
withing ten minutes into the simulation that they reached the point
where using the left hand seemed second nature [which agrees with
numerous posts to this list].

Though "considerable data" was recorded no discernible differences
were noted between stick locations.  Most right-handed pilots
preferred flying left handed while performing tasks such as tuning
radios and copying clearances [me too].

Of particular interest was that "the recorded data showed
consistant better tracking, tighter closed loop control, and faster
response/reactions using the side stick over the yoke" [which also
agrees with my prejudices].  The side stick was only slightly better
than center stick.

Summary off


In some respects this still leaves me with the same questions with
which I started.  The summary makes no mention of landings --
referring only to "typical pilot flying tasks (IFR/VFR)" [which might
well have included landings].  And I'm a bit disappointed that this
research apparently didn't explore right up to the edge of performance
limits (i.e. pushing the envelope into failure modes ).  Again, the
only analogous boundary situations for which I've seen data do show
variance.

But this is as good as we're likely to get.

-------------------
Paul Davis
Lancair Legacy builder
pdavis@bmc.com
Phone 713-918-1550
-------------------
Qui dedit beneficium taceat; narrat qui accepit
Let him who has given a favor be silent; let he who has received it tell it