Seeking head rest for ASW-20C - or a cheap chiropracter : )

On Saturday, August 17, 2019 at 11:01:29 PM UTC-4, wrote:
What is the purpose of that headrest anyway? ...Am I missing something?

Same as in your car:
Headrest is to prevent whiplash injury after forward impact.

Hmmm .... every case of whiplash I treated over the years followed a vehicle rear end impact where the recipient occupant's head went back then whiplashed forward. Of course they were all relatively minor injuries since all cars have head restraints nowadays that absorb some of the energy and also limit the initial backwards extension of the neck.

If you want to protect your neck in a glider front end impact you would need something like an F1 style HANS device - although in a typical glider serious accident there is little point given the likely state of the rest of your body.

On Monday, August 19, 2019 at 4:42:44 AM UTC-4, wrote:
Hmmm .... every case of whiplash I treated over the years followed a
vehicle rear end impact where the recipient occupant's head went
back then whiplashed forward....

Right, injury would be more common in a car from a rear-end hit,
in a glider the headrest is to prevent injury on the rebound.
Or so it was explained to me...

There was a lot of concern at Moriarty during the recent 1-26 contest.Â*
Many pilots of glass and carbon ships were worried about being rear
ended by a 1-26 rapidly overtaking them.

On 8/19/2019 6:11 AM, Dave Nadler wrote:
On Monday, August 19, 2019 at 4:42:44 AM UTC-4, wrote:
Hmmm .... every case of whiplash I treated over the years followed a
vehicle rear end impact where the recipient occupant's head went
back then whiplashed forward....
Right, injury would be more common in a car from a rear-end hit,
in a glider the headrest is to prevent injury on the rebound.
Or so it was explained to me...

--
Dan, 5J

Thanks for the information everyone!

On Monday, August 19, 2019 at 10:47:26 AM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
There was a lot of concern at Moriarty during the recent 1-26 contest.Â*
Many pilots of glass and carbon ships were worried about being rear
ended by a 1-26 rapidly overtaking them.

…While sitting on the runway, waiting for a tow, as the 1-26s practiced their relights.

In a hard crash with a flattish impact (e.g., recovering from a dive or spin but still sinking vertically), the pilot's head can snap back hard, which can cause considerable injury if not prevented by a headrest. One can argue that such a crash might not be survivable anyway but that's not the point..

I know of at least one fatal accident where this was a factor. Since I fly my ASW 24 without the factory backrest/headrest, I added a hard (i.e., not "bouncy") foam pad to address this problem.

Chip Bearden

Hey Chip, can you provide some details on the foam you added? I’m tall and also fly without the seat back. I’d like to see what you did. Thanks!

John