Medical implications of helicopter flying
16,000 hours and 50 years later.........had right hip replacement surgery after retiring. It was a great success. Prior to surgery it was rubbing bone on bone. Bloody painful. I cant really say that it was brought on by sitting in the cockpit of numerous types. Interestingly , the most comfortable seat I ever strapped in to was the original Squirrel (AS350B) seat. It being a simple (high backed) fibre glass bucket seat with foam cushions. In my last years of flying (As332L , L1 and EC225) it was painful to watch me getting out of the cockpit after a 3 and a half hour offshore round trip.It would take me a good half hour to get back to normal walking posture as opposed to staggering around like an old man...which I am now at 73. Surprisingly , Shell Anduki had Puma seats fitted to their 61's as a comfort improvement but the flights were only short hops and I cant remember getting much benefit. I was much younger then as well. We certainly did not have the comfort or ergonomics of a Boeing 747 seat which a good bar story alluded to it being able to do everything but have sex with you. A number of my helicopter (pilot) buddies have come down in later years with back problems of various sorts and extremes. Prior to hip surgery , xrays showed small back bone chips that the Dr thought may have occurred after somehow hitting my bum hard. Was that as a result of a rather heavy landing in PNG in 1975 ? (the engine had quit and the auto was not nice) Who knows. Regardless , it would be interesting to see a survey of retired helicopter pilots focusing on their various muscular-skeletal problems. Under no circumstances would we want to see such a survey to include our past drinking habits !!!!
Peter