Increased EFB usage leading to health issues?

[Superpilot]

Originally posted in the Medical forum but bringing here for better reach. Would be grateful if mods could allow.

When EFBs were first introduced, all we had were navigation charts. Then came electronic performance apps and now the entire Operational Flight Plan (OFP) is on a device mounted in our 9-10 / or 3-2 o' clock position. Because OFPs need constant updating and fiddling with (time and fuel checks, write down the ATIS, the clearance, complete the journey log etc), we spend half the flight with our neck in this unnatural position. Over the last month I've had pain/tension when rotating my neck to the left and am convinced increased EFB use is the reason. No prior history.

We need to get talking about this. I also work in the tech sector and have never suffered any kind of RSI from looking at a screen or typing on a keyboard/using a mouse. Imagine your office employer forced you to work with your torso facing forward but your neck turned towards the left or right. Inconceivable!

Thoughts?

More from the Health and Safety Executive (UK)

https://www.hse.gov.uk/msd/dse/

1. Overview

As an employer, you must protect your workers from the health risks of working with display screen equipment (DSE), such as PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations apply to workers who use DSE daily, for continuous periods of an hour or more. We describe these workers as 'DSE users'. The regulations don't apply to workers who use DSE infrequently or only use it for a short time.

How to protect workers' health

In law, employers must:

• do a DSE workstation assessment
• reduce risks, including making sure workers take breaks from DSE work or do something different
• provide an eye test if a worker asks for one
• provide training and information for workers

Incorrect use of DSE or poorly designed workstations or work environments can lead to pain in necks, shoulders, backs, arms, wrists and hands as well as fatigue and eye strain. The causes may not always be obvious.

The law applies if users are, for example:

• at a fixed workstation
• mobile workers
• home workers
• hot-desking (workers should carry out a basic risk assessment if they change desks regularly)

[Uplinker]

Can you dismount your EFB and use it on the pull-out table or on your lap to fill in data for most of the OFP functions, as we used to do with the paper version?

Innocent question, I am not trying to be clever.

[Chesty Morgan]

Take it off the mount...

[Superpilot]

I fly for an outfit that has 4 different mount types. For some, the pad is easy to remove. For others, it's a nightmare. Luckily I fly an Airbus, what options for Boeing or other pilots who fly with a yoke? To place on the tray table is of course a valid solution (Thanks Chesty!) and that's exactly what I'm going to be doing now that I'm conscious of it but it's laughable that workplace safety people focus on office ergonomics to the point of training material and tests, but nothing mentioned about this very obvious problem on the flight deck where pilots arguably now do as much paper work and admin as most other airline employees.

[Denti]

To be honest i might be lucky here. We use an easy to swivel and remove mount for our iPads and do not have to to write down any clearance or ATIS we get via datalink as that is centrally archived anyway. Therefore it is usually performance stuff and a quick fuel/time check every hour. Especially for the performance stuff i usually have the EFB on the table, and the rest either in the mount or on the table, depending how i feel.

Yes, there are rules for workplace ergonomics and IT equipment, but those usually have caveats for workplaces that simply do not allow for a traditional desk type installation, like flight decks for example. Of course it is even better if the EFB is well integrated like in the A380/A350, but that is only possible with new designs and enough space, so will be hard to do in narrow body flight decks.

But i do think Airlines should take IT ergonomics into account, which means standardized mounts, easy to use software and removing the need to double or triple entering the same data into different systems. Better IT can actually help with that, but sadly many flight ops types are neither IT specialists nor do they fly often enough to notice such inconsistencies.

[Superpilot]

Fuel checks every hour? We have every 30 mins, plus TOC and TOD are mandatory in and amongst dealing with STAR routing changes and getting the ATIS late because the reception would not allow it previously. Then there's RVSM prior and every 1 hour (Well done EASA on the universal ruling....not). All of which has to be typed away on the pad at some stage. Previously done by scribbling into a little space on paper, but now you have to launch the correct app, flick through a couple of options, then navigate to the correct tab, then scroll down to the right box, highlight it, and type. We do own loadsheets, and SOP mandates redoing all loadsheet and perf for the smallest of change.

[vlieger]

Originally Posted by Superpilot

Fuel checks every hour? We have every 30 mins, plus TOC and TOD are mandatory in and amongst dealing with STAR routing changes and getting the ATIS late because the reception would not allow it previously. Then there's RVSM prior and every 1 hour (Well done EASA on the universal ruling....not). All of which has to be typed away on the pad at some stage. Previously done by scribbling into a little space on paper, but now you have to launch the correct app, flick through a couple of options, then navigate to the correct tab, then scroll down to the right box, highlight it, and type. We do own loadsheets, and SOP mandates redoing all loadsheet and perf for the smallest of change.

Sounds like a nightmare. We only have iPads for the charts so far, dreading the next step.

[switch_on_lofty]

1. Get ops manual rewritten. RVSM checks are very 2004 for instance.
2. Use common sense with perf calcs.
3. Do some yoga/Pilates/body balance. V good for your neck and posture.
Obviously 3 is easier to initiate.

[AIMINGHIGH123]

It’s called getting old!!!

I jest but seriously stretching, yoga etc will help and look at everything. Get on top of it before it gets too bad. Once you start getting pain it can snowball.

I used to have a Honda Civic I used as a commute car. Changed cars and went Swedish. Never had back ache from driving since. Driven from Newquay to London in 1 go before any other make of car and I can barely last 2 hours. The car costs more to run but physios aren’t cheap either.

I still get a bit of back ache if I don’t walk a good 30 mins everyday. Walk from our car park to aircraft is perfect for me.

Try to get to the gym at least twice a week plus stretching and using a foam roller when I can.

Touch wood I haven’t had any major pain in years.

[Denti]

Originally Posted by Superpilot

Fuel checks every hour? We have every 30 mins, plus TOC and TOD are mandatory in and amongst dealing with STAR routing changes and getting the ATIS late because the reception would not allow it previously. Then there's RVSM prior and every 1 hour (Well done EASA on the universal ruling....not). All of which has to be typed away on the pad at some stage. Previously done by scribbling into a little space on paper, but now you have to launch the correct app, flick through a couple of options, then navigate to the correct tab, then scroll down to the right box, highlight it, and type. We do own loadsheets, and SOP mandates redoing all loadsheet and perf for the smallest of change.

Damn, you must have a very insecure director of flight operations. Why do you need all those unnecessary checks? And to be fair, having flown in Europe, not the UK, the last 20 years we never had to write down a RVSM check, that is not an EASA requirement, it is one from your own flight operations, nobody else. And obviously many airports nowadays do have DCL and D-ATIS, which means even less work.

We do the W&B ourselves as well, but there is no need to redo the loading form within a very wide margin and performance stays the same for nearly all negative changes and positive changes within a certain margin. Being able to do 30 minute turnarounds requires some common sense for all concerned.

Again, the problem does not seem to be the EFB itself, but your SOPs and possibly bad software suite.

[Busdriver01]

Seems to me that instead of the EFB being a problem as such, we just use it in a different way to the old paper documents. As others have mentioned above, unless on approach (where I keep the efb in the cradle - exactly the same place the charts used to be clipped, coincidentally) I have the efb/ipad on the table in front of me so my neck is straight. I think it's easy to be 'lazy' and try and use it while is in the cradle, but you never used to do that with any paper, so why start with the efb?

I will add though that i found over the covid period any neck pain/stiffness i had while flying went away - i suspect a mixture of awkwardly looking up and sideways to the overhead or turning 180deg to see the door cam wasn't good at all!

[Boeingdriver999]

I remember in an old airline I used to work for someone complaining about how we didn't have training on how to lift the old Jepp Airway manuals out of the bag behind the seats. The big ones with all the paper plates in them. Sounds like this is the digital version of that analogue complaint.

And then we wonder why SOPs are written as if we are all morons...