You'll get through it. It's interesting to me that this was something we took for granted, that we had to "learn", adapt to, overcome, and so on, and new CFIs that learn and instruct in glass don't even know what we are talking about.

The most helpful part I can think is that you'll learn the "new" positions for the instruments that indicates "on course", the new attitude for "level", understanding where the hand of the altimeter should be to "really" be on altitude. It's my opinion that it really doesn't matter what you train on, you simply have to adapt to it and humans are amazingly adaptable.

 

Awesome tip! Flew today and it worked great! I can't believe no one ever told me that before. It was so easy!

 

Wow! Thanks. I'm doing better than I thought!

 

It all comes with time! What's really cool is when you can switch back and forth between seats and not even really have to consciously think about it.

The best advice is to not stop practicing and learning.

 

When I was learning to fly from the right seat, my CFI told me to focus on the things that are the same, not the differences. Especially on landing, she said just look down to the end of the runway on the flare, and not to focus close-up on the center line. For me, this made the sight picture for the rudder usage a lot more similar to the left seat. She also said that in her opinion people make too big a deal in their minds about switching seats and start focusing on all of the differences and psych themselves out. Her advice has served me well for switching seats, and switching from plane to plane for that matter.

Also, when you're sitting in the right seat (or switching back to the left after getting used to the right). Force yourself to keep one hand on the throttle and one hand on the yoke, so you don't reach for a throttle that doesn't exist if you need to add power in a critical situation.

As far as the instrument panel goes, like others have said, find things that will help point out stuff you have issues seeing. For myself, I sit in most planes with the seat as far forward as it will go, which means I can never read any of the numbers on the right side of the airspeed indicator (the slow airspeeds). This always made me nervous teaching students how to land, when I couldn't read the airspeed number, until I figured out that in virtually every plane I fly final approach speed is when the airspeed indicator needle is pointed 90 degrees to the right.

As for getting CFII first, in some FSDOs it's an easier rating to get than regular CFI. Also, there are some 141 programs out there that have gotten a CFII initial course approved that uses a non-complex airplane, thus bypassing the need to have single engine complex planes in their fleet. Whatever your reasoning is, I wish you the best of luck. I also advocate getting that CFI and possibly even the MEI done while you are still in 'student' mode. The idea of studying up and getting another rating knocked out seems so much more daunting now as a fulltime CFI.

 

This is definitely a prudent piece of advice. The same things you learned in the left seat still apply; some of them just look a little different. If you keep in mind the same principles you were taught (look down the runway, keep it on centerline, etc.), you will be fine with a bit more practice.

I had this same issue during my CFI training. Taking a step back and "getting back to basics" was the most beneficial piece of training during my transition to the right seat.

 

are you doing CFII, then MEI, then CFI? If so, that's what I did and by far the most cost effective approach to get all 3!