Ergonomic Evaluation Of Aircraft Wing Recovering Tasks In General Aviation Maintenance

General aviation (GA) maintenance ergonomics has been a largely understudied area. It is known that risks for musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) occur in other types of maintenance. This paper presents an approach to ergonomic evaluations in a GA maintenance workshop for tasks of recovering aircraft wings. First, a high-level analysis and resulting job/task hierarchy were completed. The task hierarchy suggested that the recovering tasks for three different types of aircraft wings present different musculoskeletal risks to maintainers. Next, ergonomic screening tools were used to evaluate the work performed on each wing type. Finally, based on the screening, more detailed ergonomic analyses were performed. Results indicated that risks to the low back as well as hands and wrists are present in these tasks with risks largely dependent on task duration. Evaluation tools used and suggestions for further research in this work domain are discussed. Copyright 2013 by Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Inc