PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - The effect of cumulative helicopter flight time on the human body
Old 24th Nov 2023, 12:50
  #16 (permalink)  
[email protected]
 
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: EGDC
Posts: 10,340
Received 631 Likes on 273 Posts
The worst seat was the Gazelle which didn't support the back of your legs very well leading to problems for some people with sciatica and lower back pain. I only ever flew short sorties in it due to being in a training environment but you certainly knew about it after a long navex.

Myra is correct re 'george' not being much use when precision hovering is required, especially with one of your mates on a 200 plus length of winch wire.

Many more recent ex-mil pilots have neck problems due to the widespread use of NVG/NVD.

The fact is that getting old is sh*t but its better than the alternative. You don't know what issues you would have had if you hadn't spent your life in a helicopter - my BIL had lots of back and sciatica problems and he was a desk jockey for all his career.
crab@SAAvn.co.uk is offline