RE: Left or Right seat ?
I went to Antalya in Turkey last night with a guy who used to be a commercial helicopter pilot. He said that there are significantly more helicopters that the commander sits in the right seat than the left. He could offer no reason why except for the underslung load carrying scenario where the commander always sits on the right. This is because when doing this sort of work they invariably spend most of their time leaning out of the side window looking down. With the collective lever in the left hand, sitting on the right and straining to look out the right will mean a natural tendency to climb rather than sitting on the left which would tend to encourage a descent into the ground. Logical, I suppose!