Heart Broken cause of my warthog stick

[MackTheKnight]

I simply place it between my legs, on the seat bottom itself.

 

+1 for this. I was having some issues with RSI when I had my old CH gear sitting on my desk. I had no easy way to mount the hotas low and centre. But when I switched to the HOTAS Warthog, I simply placed the stick on my seat between my legs.

 

One tip I'll offer for placing the stick like this, if you find the base plate digs into your legs, just take the 4 screws out of the bottom of the Warthog stick and rotate the plate 90 degrees so it's wider then it is long and put the screws back in. This did the trick for me. :)

[Succellus]

Just to correct my statement.

When i meaned pit, erroneously, i was meaning an ergonomic way to put your throttle and stick.

Remember when placed in the plane ergonomic are taken on account it shouldn t be diferent with us.

I m planning using a car chair to be the seat, there s few things as confortable as a car chair, and since most of them have many adjustments, and a metallic frame that can be the base to build supports for the hotas, its seems the perfect tool.

Problem is bringing the goat home, and then make honey accept this thing. :D

 

As for treatment as many said rest, anti inflamatory (they dont always work), ICE application at least 3 times a day, fisioterapy or other kind of therapy specified for such.

I guess i know some my wife got this stuff on 6 points (2 wrist, 2 elbows and 2 shoulders) she just don t have more because i guess it can t spread more. And the med sayd that once the crisis is out she should pump it up (for real, not just the fake pumping she does now) and elongation pos weight pushing.

 

Hotas on the desk is nerve suicide, i know practician have to feed theyr kids but...

[robmlufc]

Perhaps not entirely useful but, a mountain biking mate of mine swears by using those power balls to help with CTS. I dont know if its just a myth or anything but they certainly give your wrist a work out after some use!

 

Get well soon buddy.

[bumfire]

Lots of great info here, thanks alot everyone, you have all been most kind in my hour of need.

 

Cheers ;)

[hawka]

I have a surggestion for you, you could try the VAC software program for as many control inputs used by your thumb as you can,by keeping your thumb relaxed it will help the problem.

[Phantom88]

I hope you can get healthy without the surgery.Stay Positive!

Cheers Bud!! Get better soon!

[Frazer]

I have my HOTAS at the same hight as my chair armrests. I used two chairs with (empty :D) beer crates on them and a wooden plate over them to get the right hight. Besides that I use skate elbow pads to protect my elbows (flying without the elbow pads kill my elbows!) and this also helps my elbow slide over the chair when pulling/pushing.

 

I've never had any cramps or what you guys subscribe above with this simple setup. I'm not flying the heaviest stick (with a heavy stick a center position between the legs is probably best).

 

Here a video:

[Wartski]

Maybe you are leaning your hand or wrist against part of the stick.

Maybe you are holding the stick while your wrist is not straight.

Maybe you are leaning on your forearm.

Maybe you are holding the stick to tightly.

[Jinja]

Hi Bumfire,

 

Lots of good advice here. Don't fret, CTS isn't rocket-science...

 

STOP playing till fully healed.

Ice-packs as mentioned.

Physio as mentioned.

Pay the physio to come round and look at the ergonomics of your environment. Companies pay health-professionals to analyze their work-environments, and the reasons why they do so absolutely apply in your case.

Rectify your seating/control positions to minimize tendon/joint contortion/misalignments.

Then start playing.

 

 

I had severe CTS in wrist but never dreamt of surgery... it just took the simple steps above.

I had to buy new ergo-mouse at $100 but worth every penny because I was fixed in 3 weeks. (I write software so am tied to my desk).

 

The 2nd photo shows the alignment of my wrist when using the mouse... no twisting involved. My previous and normal mouse was slowly killing me ;-)

Edited June 14, 2011 by Jinja

[digitaljjd]

Welcome to the club bumfire! I realize that the warthog bases are much larger, but maybe you can buy a cheap office chair and find a way to mount them to it like I did for my X-52, my main concern was being able to have adjustability, as I suffer from bilateral wrist and elbow pain as well...right now in fact. With some extended hardware I was able to lower the arms of this chair about 2 1/4 inches with some spacer blocks, ( for overall height adjustment) and I drilled sequential holes in the platform mounts to be able to raise or lower them as needed. It worked out pretty well.

 

[Shaman]

I am very sorry for the health problems you got, bumfire.

However you have raised very important issue that most simmers are either not aware of, or ignore the problem. I have noticed people posting photos of their sim setups and some simmers tend to put their HOTAS on desk. This will give you extreme health issues! For this only reason our community should promote proper ergonomics in our flying environment and there should be a sticked thread describing correct ergonomics. This is hobby that last for most of us for a life-time! I myself put HOTAS next to my chair on the most comfortable level, so my arms and hands are in resting position when I put them on both stick and throttle. Everyone else, please do so! You can use any means possible. F.e. you may aquire very cheap wooden stools (looks don't matter) that are tall enough, so you can adjust them by cutting shorter their legs.

[Jinja]

Welcome to the club bumfire! I realize that the warthog bases are much larger, but maybe you can buy a cheap office chair and find a way to mount them to it like I did for my X-52, my main concern was being able to have adjustability, as I suffer from bilateral wrist and elbow pain as well...right now in fact. With some extended hardware I was able to lower the arms of this chair about 2 1/4 inches with some spacer blocks, ( for overall height adjustment) and I drilled sequential holes in the platform mounts to be able to raise or lower them as needed. It worked out pretty well.

 

 

:)

 

Nice, that's what I'm talking about! Wrist and forearm will be perfectly/naturally aligned when using this throttle.

[ZaltysZ]

The source of carpal nerve syndrome can be any activity in which you keep your wrist bended for prolonged time, especially if that activity is stressful. Incorrect work with keyboard is usual cause, but not the only one. People doing packaging work, or constantly cutting something hard (stiff meat, bones) can easily get this problem too.

 

Same goes for ulnar nerve syndrome, but instead of wrist it is about elbow. Sleeping with your arm bent, holding bent arm on hard arm rests or table can cause ulnar nerve syndrome.

 

Sometimes it is very easy to blame your toys (stick and throttle), especially if you feel tired after using them, however the cause can be something else too, so it is very worth to analyze your activities once you see symptoms. Don't wait to long. If non intrusive methods don't help, go for surgery. Don't forget that once your nerve gets messed up, it won't recover, so waiting too long can be very regretful.

[ZaltysZ]

My neighbour had an operation on both hands due to the same thing a few years ago and she said that it made it 100% worse and both her hands are now constantly numb and with a pins and needles like feeling, it wasnt nearly as bad before she got her op, so thats the last thing I want.

 

Depends on how damaged the nerves were. If they had severe damage (i.e. numbness was present), operation could not cure her, but it probably stopped illness from progressing further.