Left hip going bad. Can hardly crawl in and out of my PA-12

[Float Pilot]

I have only owned my PA-12 for 2 or 3 years. She is a dream to fly down low and slow since she has extended wings and tail.
BUT, back in one of my past careers I managed to have a foreign body blast through my left hip. It has now started bothering me again. For some reason the contortions of crawling into my 12 drives me to tears, Crawling out is almost as bad. Maybe lowering the front seat might help. Not sure since I could not get my IA to do that while he was overcharging me for the last annual.
Odd since getting in and out of PA-18s and J3s is no problem.

Looks like I will be plane shopping again fairly soon. Much to my wife's great displeasure. She is scared to death of flying and thinks everyone else should be too. So she is jealous of any cash I throw at my flying addiction. Maybe I can find something experimental that I can trailer home during the winters and store in a pole barn.

 

[4merguide]

Sorry to hear about the pain. It's up to you of course, but I would start eating a lot of anti-inflammatory foods. Turmeric is very good for this. You can google some of the others. Also start taking a bunch of glucosamine as well as collagen. It makes a difference.

 

[Float Pilot]

I am doing all of that. It would probably be worse if I was not. Snow-shoeing a couple days ago was a real interesting deal....

 

[4merguide]

I am doing all of that. It would probably be worse if I was not. Snow-shoeing a couple days ago was a real interesting deal....

Glad to hear it, but you might want to up the dosage. A friend of mine is a retired lineman with terrible knees. I told him and another friend of his told him to get on the glucosamine. A month or so passed and I asked him how he was doing. He said nothing had changed until his other friend found out that he was only taking a couple a day. He said after he went to six a day it made all the difference in the world. Maybe up the dose of collagen per day as well. I’ve been upping the dosage since I wrenched my shoulder real bad a couple months ago. And you’re right, it would be a lot worse if you weren’t taking anything. Good luck!

 

[Larry Bartlett]

get your femur head and hip xray. I had a right hip resurfacing before I turned 50 y/o due to a slightly egg-shaped femur head that dissolved my hip cartilage. you might have a chance to save some bone if you get it looked at. Caught mine before I was crawling everywhere, not just out of a plane.

 

[Larry Bartlett]

BTW i had previous injury to that hip too, so I went years with pain thinking the old problem just came full circle...but it was something new. Get xrays brother. You'll know immediately.

 

[Float Pilot]

I will try to get myself up to Soldotna to see a real doctor. The ones around Homer scare the heck out of me. Whenever we get a good one, the local whack-jobs run them off.

 

[4merguide]

I will try to get myself up to Soldotna to see a real doctor. The ones around Homer scare the heck out of me. Whenever we get a good one, the local whack-jobs run them off.

You might want to talk to him. He did my miniscus surgery on my knee. If I recall, he also did my daughter's torn ACL. From what I gather he's pretty well liked in Soldotna.
https://health.usnews.com/doctors/david-innes-231260

 

[stillapa12drvr]

Not sure if it will help, but I really struggle to get into PA-18's, 14's (even without any specific injuries / issues), but have no problem getting into the -12 with a lowered -18 seat in front. I did more or less write myself a procedure (grab frame, right foot on step, left foot across to far side of seat, both hands pull forward, swing right foot in, plop butt down) but getting in is doable. Any flight more than about 2 hours leads to stiffness issues that make exiting very comedic to watch.