Wrist Flying

My question:

Brett spoke about some tendentious in his wrist. It would seem to me, from my years designing for ergonomics that this type of motion, especially with today's powerful engines, could lead to all kinds of stress injuries.

I know that as I get older my left wrist suffers a lot in the down-cock of my golf swing. A lot of other golfers struggle with the same type of thing. The wrist is just so susceptible to repetitive injury because of all those little bones in there.

I actually flew the way that was described when I had no right bicep and I can see an advantage to it. My only thing is that I keep avoiding this style simply for the ergonomic reasons.

I was just wondering if there is any correlation between Brett's wrist troubles and this style.

Are you also against Wrist Watches?

No. But I wish it to be known that I am completely against any and all Flying Wrist Watches.

Wonder what Godzilla thinks of what we have done to this thread? After all, it seemed to be a serious question.

Tim

http://clstunt.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=4807&forum=DCForumID1&omm=20&viewmode=threaded

Tim

Also, re: flying signs, witches, watches, etc. - how about a Flying Bridge. Performed similar to a Fox 15 toss except you use false teeth.

Now back to being somewhat serious...

Theo, I had some trouble with Tennis Elbow (both at the same time), a few years ago. I don't know if it was from fishing too much (hard to believe, but maybe hooksets are NOT free) or working too much (hammering parts down into the mill vise too hard or with the wrong kind of hammer?). But anyway, it hurt like the dickens, for a long time. Later, when I was flying the "Lancer" with 2Star .60bb, I noticed right away that my elbow didn't like it if I let it pull my arm out straight. Much better, with no after-effects, if I pulled the handle up high and in front as recommended by Ted, Brett, Paul and others, and I personally thought it helped my flying. Unfortunately, I crashed the model in May, I think because of wearing bifocals while flying. Steve

>I was just wondering if there is any correlation between
>Brett's wrist troubles and this style.

Not really. The crux of my problem was a repetitive stress situation with a mouse. I had gotten a 3-button mouse for my Mac at work for reasosn that aren't relevant. The use of the left button required me to reach across with my index finger, and to keep from hitting the other buttons I was hooking my middle finger on the right edge of the mouse, spreading my fingers apart to nearly the limit.

After about 5 years of this, I started having pain in my forearm/elbow area, right below the little knob of bone that sticks out on the outside. Flying didn't really effect it, in fact, flying, being time away from work, made it very marginally better. Wrist movement didn't really trigger it, although other flying movements did. For instance, after the 2002 NATs, the 3 1/2 days of driving, and flying all week, and 3 days of driving back, it was noticeably better. I actually hurt it again trying to clean my windshield with a squeegee on the drive home Putting load on it in certain directions was very painful. I flew awfully well at the 2002 NATs, even with the problem, but flipping the prop was a significant difficulty.

Finally, it had gotten so bad just in regular life that I considered skipping the Golden State meet. I had a brace on all weekend (when no one was looking since I didn't want anyone thinking I was making excuses). I once again did pretty well, although I turned down Paul's offer of flying the P-51 because I was afraid I couldn't hold on.

By Monday morning after the contest, it felt better. But about an hour after getting to work, it was like my forearm was on fire. Finally it dawned on me what the problem was. I switched back to the original Apple one-button mouse, and it slowly got better. It really wasn't completely right again for about 6 months.

I do get sore sometimes from flying, just because of the pull. But this is just a muscular issue, and it goes away pretty quickly. The mouse problem was tendonitis, and it didn't go away very quickly at all.

I did have one fast flight (5.1) that required elbow motion to overcome the excessive loads, and this did hurt my arm. But normal flying had no ill effects, and might have helped slightlly.

I did gain an appreciation for repetitive stress injuries, and I suggest that if anyone is having odd, otherwise unexplainable, pains around joints, you might want to look into your ordinary activities for things that could strain on a repetitive basis.

Doug,

You simply could not be more wrong on this "x" thing. I honestly hope you come to your senses soon.

Love to argue,

Tim

Interesting comment about the computer mouse.

I suffered I thought tendonitus in the right shoulder. Got so bad I started using the computer mouse with my left hand. After realizing my right arm could not be raised more than 12 inches from the side I started therapy. Interesting thing happened. During the first testing phase, My dominant right arm was 60% of strength of the left arm. Should be 110%. After therapy I am back to 100% strength of left arm and have full movement range. So the lesson here is: If it hurts, get help, perhaps exercise and restore your body to full strength. I played it "Safe" but also ignorant and lost quality of life for about three years. Dumb me.

Bob Smiley
A Lancair 360 builder/pilot trying to be a modeler