Question: Here is a question that has been bothering me for a while. Do right-handed fighter pilots use their right hand to hold the control stick? **And do left-handed fighter pilots use their left hand?**

Or is it the other way around? Or do they maybe use both hands a lot of the time? It also brings up the question as to what the other hand is expected to do and which side of the cockpit the most common control buttons are on.

My guess is that since most people are right handed, they use their right hand. There's also triggers on the yoke so it seems all the more likely that the right hand is used for right-handers. 

I'm asking because you look at **video games and their controllers**. They always use the **left joystick** for moving the character. In the case of flight simulators, the **left joystick** is used as the 'stick' or yoke. So you're pretty much left with no choice but to use your left thumb. Not saying this is awkward for video games, however, on those big joysticks for PC games, I remember I always used my right hand.

Also, let's ignore civil commercial piloting because those seem to usually use steering wheel type controls, not a traditional stick. Please let me know if you're a fighter pilot when you answer, because the triggers on the yoke have an effect on which hand you're most comfortable with.

Answer: 
I am an ex-military pilot and retired airline pilot who is still an active pilot in general aviation. The simple answer is that single seat and tandem seat cockpits are set up with the throttle and trim on the left, so that the stick has to be handled with the right hand.

With a few exceptions side by side cockpits have wheels and the throttle and trim are between the seats so that the pilot in the left seat, usually the pilot in command, uses his left hand on the wheel and the other pilot uses his right hand on the wheel.

I never have trouble switching back and forth, but some people do.
Its not just fighter planes that have the stick in the right and power in the left. That's the way tandem (front-and-back seating) aircraft are set up in general. You can see the throttle on the left-hand wall in this Citabria:

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/EzuTi.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/EzuTi.jpg)

And gliders and helicopters are also set up with "the stick" in the right hand and "power" in the left.

Even though a glider doesn't have an engine, most of them have some kind of airbrakes, which are deployed just as if it was a throttle. Pushing the lever forward with the left hand decreases drag and pulling backwards increases drag. This isn't the same as thrust, but to a power pilot, it feels fairly natural to push forward to go faster and pull backwards to go slower. The speed brake handle in this glider is the blue handle on the left.

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sd0cF.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sd0cF.jpg)

In a helicopter, the right hand (no matter which side the pilot sits on) is for the cyclic, which (for the post part) controls pitch and roll, and the left hand controls the collective and throttle, which together work to add and remove power from the aircraft. This also feels fairly natural to pilots who are used to stick in the right, throttle in the left. The big difference is that the collective is an "up/down" control like a [Johnson bar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_bar_(vehicle)), not a "forward/back" control, and you put it down to reduce power and up to increase power. Furthermore, the throttle, when manually controlled, is a twist grip on the collective, which operates more like a motorcycle throttle. You can see the heli controls in this simulator.

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2uJDg.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2uJDg.jpg)