When I was a kid my friends and I built a little wooden car to coast down hills. We used pullys, rope and a steering wheel for guidance, but we wound the ropes the wrong way on the steering wheel so that the steering was the opposite of a normal car. If you turned the steering wheel clocksise the car turned to the left.

I guess we knew that it was wrong but we didn't care, none of us drove a car. We just got used to it and it worked fine for us. It was really fun when any of our older friends tried it. Somtimes we would forget to tell them about the steering convention .

Found four "authorative", yet contradictory "origins"...

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexper...wordorigins/ok
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=OK
http://www.ebicom.net/~rsf1/ok.htm
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?EtymologyOfOkay

various dubtful origins, no definites.

gus

Gus, great post. I always thought balls out had something to do with the fly on my pants but I guess not.

hang glider pilots fly all the time with reverse controls for elevator.. think of what you do when you are hanging below the wing in a strap. you push forward to shift your weight back and climb.

anyway, something else to think about... rc heli pilots that teach themselves will fairly often learn with the rudder the wrong way. (push the stick right and the tail goes right) You spend so much time early on in a heli in tail in hover that control seems natural, it takes months just to see the nose of the heli!

Easy gus!!!! You win! The one I was looking for as far as "the whole nine yards" was the fighter ammo answer........but, since you came up with sooo much info, I'll send you two sets of wheels. PM me with your address, and let me know what you'd like, I've got a grocery bag full!

Jetts

BTW,
A garbage truck will carry a WHOLE LOT MORE than nine yards...... But I digress....the answer I was seeking was the ammo belt answer, and thus being aircraft oriented.
I will now return this thread to it regularly scheduled conclusion.

WoW!! Lots of replies on this one, huh?

I was looking for an answer more along the lines of what rcjon gave me, but I will agree that it does just feel more natural to pull back to bring the nose up.

Thanx again.

Jetts,
Whether or not the volume that a garbage truck can carry is 9 yards, I couldn't say, but a standard 6 wheel dump truck will carry about 15 yards of gravel, so I'm guessing you're right.
Dennis-

Another fun thing about the hanglider is having to push the bar to the left to go right.

Yes, I used to drive a couple of different garbage trucks, and 20+ tons is just a little more than 9 yards.

Just remember to pull back to slow the horse down, so pulling back to slow a plane, to flare for landing makes sense.......pulling back slows the plane. You WILL go up for awhile, but then you will go down. Maybe we "pull back to slow down, er go up" for this reason?

Khodges , not meaning to argue as I agree BUT early aircraft were set up whatever the designers felt personally they liked.obviously, the Wrights decided their hard to control machine was easier to fly seated. they changed designs as they found what worked better.many different systems were used intill it became more or less standardized by concencus. even then brakes(those that had them)and auxilary systems were applied differently on early as oposed to later models. even a s late as WWII , the british joystick functioned some what differntly than did American models , although directions were the same. landing gear levers were on opposie sides resulting in a pronounced "wobble "after take off from switching hands .

And for the pushing to the left to turn right in a hang glider...

When I was taught to ride a motorcycle (long time ago), I had a hard time getting the hang of leaning into gentle turns at low speed. So I was taught to push on the left handlebar to turn right.

Reall great thread and very interesting.... While reading it though, I had another question that I have wondered about. Why is the airplane door used for boarding on the left side of the plane? Could it be because the Captain started out on that side? Obviously, they started boarding from the left before jetbridges existed, so it there had to be some reason behind it.