Nahoy08

I was recently informed that I will be needing the trifecta surgery acl, lcl and meniscus surgery. Was wondering about the average recovery time and how long it was before returning to work? What was involved with the faa AME process after the surgery and recovery to return to work?

Excargodog

Go back to work when the orthopedic surgeon says you can unless you are still on meds that would be a problem or have such a bad outcome that you are unable to safely perform the duties. As long as you have good range of motion and aren't significantly impaired the FAA doesn't care any more about orthodopedic surgery than an appendectomy. You report it on your next physical of course.

shadyatbest

I had ACL surgery 6 weeks ago. Along with that was some meniscus damage that they were not able to repair, so it was cut out.

I had my 6 week follow up appointment today and was given a better idea of the timeline to expect. This particular Dr. does a lot of pilots and athletes due to the location.

When I asked about going back to work after 3 months, he looked at me funny. He said that would be a pretty aggressive timeline and he would actually recommend more towards the 4 month point. 4 months would be the more typical return to work timeline of his pilot ACL patients.

Of course, it's completely up to you and how you feel. Even though I'm feeling good, I can tell the knee is still no where close to being 100% strength and agility wise at the 6 week point. I'm guessing a lot of people rush their return to the cockpit a little faster than they should because their knee feels good.

This Dr. recommends not riding a bike outside until the 3 month point and not doing sports that require cutting or pivoting until the 6 month point. To me, that kind of puts things into perspective. Of course each case will be different. I feel like my situation is average and very similar to the ACL recovery on my other knee that I did years ago.