Aircrew member survey

[dfender110]

Guys, Pass this around. It is an official DOD survey about back pain and military flying. Not sure what they can or will do with the info but it may help in some way.

Took me less than 10 minutes.

http://www.dodhelicopterseatsurvey.com/ex310300/default.aspx


Mods, not sure if this should be posted anywhere else as well, feel free to pass it on.

NSDQ-SGDM

[BKK]

Thanks for the link. I will post it on another Army Pilot Forum.

It is the least we can do for all those hours in poorly designed seats.

[Skidder]

I spent more time trying to ensure 'they' understood that any design sponsored pain I may have really didn't hit me until much closer to 20 years of service, rather than earlier in my career.

Overall, I didn't get the impression that the questions will result in any changes to the aircraft at all. Seemed more like a CYA action/predictor of future VA claims.

[JAFO]

Agreed. Just because the seats "stroke" on impact, doesn't mean that they stroke your back. The H-60 hunch is still killing me.

[CrewDogGmoney]

Has anyone sat in the 60M seats for long flights? Opinions? I'm used to sitting FWD in the CE A/L seats with the Oregon Aero cush.

[Jet Rooster]

Funny, they did the same thing about 30 years ago. It was determined then that the combination of vibration and the "slouch" that was required to properly operate the controls were direct causes of "Helicopter Back": as it was called then.

[Little Fix]

I have not yet sat in a UH-60M seat but I am willing to bet it isn't much better than the current seats.

I agree that the vibratory environment of helicopters is not conducive to long term back and neck health. I also think that the biggest thing not accounted for is the number of NVG hours flown and the amount of hours flown in full body armor. It's not a direct correlation between combat hours flown and hours flown with armor... The more weight you put on the body the more strain that is involved and this survey didn't take that into account at all.