Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Friendliest aviation Ccmmunity on the web
  • Modern site for PC's, Phones, Tablets - no 3rd party apps required
  • Ask questions, help others, promote aviation
  • Share the passion for aviation
  • Invite everyone to Flightinfo.com and let's have fun

Question for Pilots...

Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Modern secure site, no 3rd party apps required
  • Invite your friends
  • Share the passion of aviation
  • Friendliest aviation community on the web

Which applies to you?


  • Total voters
    648
  • Poll closed .
Left-handed, second and last child. Scared of heights.

Interestingly enough, I used to work at an Intellectual Property or "IP" law firm. They basically handled a lot with patent infringement and engineering issues. Although not the majority, There was a disproportinate number of attorneys that were left-handed. Most also had an undrgraduate degree in biology, engineering or physics. This was usually a prerequisite to being an associate there as well.

Not only were almost half of them left-handed, given the fact that left handed people only make up about 9% of the population, but a lot of the attorneys had pilot licenses. One even flew fighter jets in the military.

It seems that left-handed people have above average mechanical skills and so are drawn to fields such as aviation where it is usually necessary to have a mechanical understanding of systems and such.

To continue further, Left and right handed people utilize or have more dominant use of their opposite cerebral hemispheres. Right hemisphere controls the left side and vice versa. This translates into processing information in different ways.

For instance,

When asked to memorize the following words (this works best when done verbally with someone):

Dog
Tree
Apple
Table

Most right handed people will recite this list by rote since right handed people tend to use this process in recalling information. Memorization takes place by recalling information in a rote manner.

Left handed people on the other hand (no pun intended!), when asked how they stored or memorized this information after repeating it will almost invariable state visually. They actually see these words and build a visual picture of an apple tree with a dog tied to it and a wooden picnic table adjacent.
 
2 out of three

First born, right handed and scared to climb anything above 10 feet. Both Parents are both left handed, only children and first generation americans. Out of their 5 sons, only one is left handed (second born) he is also a Dual Rated Pilot like older brother (Me). Three of us served in Iraq at same time, but different units. I served with the 25th ID (Mosul, Iraq), that was my fathers first duty assignment in 1966, Schoelfield Barracks, Hawaii. How's that for freaky coincidence?
 
First born(only child), right handed, don't like ladders.

In the class I'm taking right now on human factors in aviation we are discussing an article written by Frank Dully, a USN flight surgeon. In it he discusses the traits of a successful naval aviator and how to spot a failing naval aviator. The traits themselves are quite obvious when you're reading the article but some of the other information is very interesting.

In his study he found that 90% of naval aviators are either first born, or have at least 4 years between themselves and their older siblings.

so with this information the teacher (an ex P-3 pilot in the navy) polled the pilots in the class and over 90% of us are first born, or have 4 years between us and our siblings.

very interesting.
 
Last edited:
I've also heard a lot of pilots talk with themselves.
 
Left handed. First (and only) child.

Heights from an airplane don't bother me, but peering over the side of a cliff, etc...does.
 
I fit into the following categories...

First child, right handed, scared of heights (Only when exposed - Airplanes and bridges don't bother me, but climbing towers or ladders drives me nuts, and I can't stand on the edge of something.), petrified of needles (fear of these is paralyzingly bad, even the thought does it, or seeing them on tv), talks to self, makes funny noises, collects cutesy things, keeps cats, chatters incessantly on radio / internet, hides from people in real life, embarassed to talk to other pilots (I know I'll say something dumb) except on the internet (then it doesn't matter), builds things rather than buys them (stuff isn't cheap!) but usually wastes more time than the item is worth (building stuff isn't easy either), lives on ramen, rice, and other cheap food, can't hold a constant heading or altitude, person of questionable sanity, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't go to church, doesn't have a life, drives a deathtrap of a beat-up old car (brakes are for wimps!), watches wierd things nobody else watches on TV (MASH, The History Channel, Cops), lives paycheck to paycheck, flies but can't really afford it, student pilot who lets two and three month gaps pass between flights, runs through procedures by memory rather than consult a checklist, usually omits checklist items / loses place on checklists, crappy work ethic (I'll do it when I'm good and dang ready!), considered to be the family disappointment, requires eyeglasses, wears dress pants and white shirts all the time, ham radio operator, student dork, embarasses others in public, overconfident in own knowledge of things, jumps to conclusions, exercises questionable judgement, considers lying to customers to be a job skill, human being.
 

Latest resources

Back
Top