First-Time Hearing Aid Trial – Airline Pilot with Reverse-Slope SSHL

@Ramzi said:

Unfortunately, I can’t connect the hearing aids to the comms, it would have been awesome. During cruise, we communicate with controllers using a handheld mic and listen through the speaker. Before the top of descent, I put on my noise-canceling headset.

I don’t know if you use aviation specific noise cancelling headsets but I expect you do in order to connect correctly to the aircraft. If you have a choice of headsets, I’d suggest that they have large ear cups that seal well against your head rather than on the ear or in the ear. If around the ear is the type you have, take them with you to the audiologist when you are getting fitted to ensure that the headset doesn’t cause feedback with the aids. Good noise cancelling headsets with large cups rely on both passive and active noise reduction (good for use in aircraft like the noisy old UH-1N twin Huey military helicopter I used to fly long ago but they weren’t available then). I now use large cup closed back headphones over my ears with my Oticon Real 1 (previous generation to Intent) without feedback when riding in an airliner - makes thing much quieter

With aids, you may miss out on low frequency sounds (less than about 100 Hz) and high (above about 8 to 10 KHz) depending on the “receiver” (the speaker that creates the processed sound). Those “missing” ranges will probably not matter much for you but you might ask if you think you might need to hear them, especially the low end.

I expect a good audiologist can make some aid work appropriately for you. It may be a process where you have quite a number of adjustments to work things out.

Does your airline permit you to wear over the ear headsets? When I was flying corporate jets, we couldn’t wear the large over the ear cup headphones because they got in the way of being able to put on a quick donning oxygen mask. We wore the headset and boom mic that were thin and didn’t impede donning the mask.

Thanks for your feedback! I’m going to start with the Oticon Intent 1 for two weeks and then try the Phonak Sphere. Since I’ve never used hearing aids before, I might not like either of them or I might like both! I don’t really know what to expect, I’ve been watching Matthew Allsop’s channel lately since hearing aids and hearing loss have been my main focus recently.

Thanks again, Louie. I did watch the video you posted. I’m going to have to trust my HIS since he’s the expert, but I also think it’s important to educate myself on the matter. I’ll definitely share the video with him, and I’ll probably experiment to see what works best for me.

By the way, I am surprised that pilots listen to air traffic controllers from a loudspeaker. I always thought that all communication—with air traffic control, the second pilot, and other planes—was through headsets and boom mics.

I assume you ment over the ear, not over the head. Is the Airbus equipped with the masks that are EROS oxygen masks. These are the kind that the rubber, elastic tubes inflate with oxygen when you grab the front of the mask to remove it from its storage compartment. Once you place the inflated tubes over your head, and release the two levers that you used to get the mask on your face, the oxygen is released from the elastic tubes, and they keep the mask on your firmly on your face.

We do wear headsets during critical phases of flight—on the ground, takeoff, climb, descent, approach, and landing. If the flight is under two hours, we usually keep them on the whole time. But on longer flights, once we’re settled in cruise for a few hours, we take them off and use the loudspeaker instead. It helps with comfort, especially on long-haul flights where we might be cruising for 3+ hours before starting our descent.

That is correct! Mask first, then headset. And yes, the audio panel automatically switches to speakers when you select the O2 mask microphone. I’ll probably have to test it out in the sim—that’s the only way to know for sure how it affects my hearing aids. Definitely something to consider, especially in an emergency or even just during practice. Thanks for the thought!

I never wore an over the ear headset in the airplane because getting it off takes time. I once had a real rapid decompression in a Learjet 24D. We were just beginning our descent out of FL 410, when the front outflow valve went wide open. The cabin going up, didn’t hurt my ears too much. But when we got to zero diff, and the airplane was descending at approx 10,000 ft. per minute, that hurt my ears. I always wore a Plantronics headphones with a boom mic. I also had a student who was an audiologist. He made an ear mold that fit onto the headset. That way the boom mic was essentially attached to my ear at one end. I had both a left and right headset with its own molded ear piece. We swapped seats since we were all type rated and the Learjet didn’t require seat dependent training. Because we didn’t have anything like noise canceling head sets, I trained pilots in small aircraft without hearing protection. Now, I wear hearing aids for my higher frequencies deficits. Also, I haven’t flown a real airplane in a long time. I teach our simulator instructors in how to teach our customers in the various corporate jet full flight simulators.

Good luck.

Wow, I can only imagine what that must have been like, especially at FL410, where the time of useful consciousness is just 15–20 seconds. I’ve always wondered what that would feel like.

I was speaking with the aviation doctors at my company, and apparently, they’ll need to test the hearing aids in the sim before submitting the paperwork to Transport Canada.

Thanks for sharing, nice.

I have no experience in your situation, but I do have some with the Phonak HAs and microphone combination. Your HAs/microphone set up is done once. After that it is just turn on the microphone and clip it on. There may be some minor tuning based on experience, but nothing requiring effort on the part of the mic user. As I remember, the literature on the microphone says to clip or hang it 8" or so below the user’s mouth. It preferentially picks up sounds from that direction. In my experience of walking with my wife in the wind, the mic does reduce wind noise while picking up speech. Not comparable to a cockpit, but for what it is worth.

I probably shouldn’t have been flying that day because I was not feeling well the night before. I felt fine when I showed up for the trip in the morning. The other pilot and I were spending the day and went to breakfast. I started feeling ill and I took aspirin and slept in the FBO pilot lounge until it was time to depart. The sky was completely clear and it was hot when we began our descent into Dallas. When I dialed the cabin down the cabin outflow valve went wide open. I was slow getting my O2 mask on. The captain told me to get my mask on as he began an emergency descent. I said to him, “Why this is the best I’ve felt all day”. I finally got it on. The cabin going up is uncomfortable, but the airplane going down to 10,000 ft, at more than 6,000 ft. Per minute really hurts your ears. On the ramp, it was 104°F. I was wearing a sport coat and tie and was freezing.

@Ramzi said:

Unfortunately, neither Phonak nor Oticon offer disposable battery options.

Ramzi, I’m glad you found the forum here, and hope you get the answers and a “roadmap” to your optimal solution.

Turns out that Phonak does indeed have a 312-battery version of the Lumity Life aid. I know that Sphere is the TOP of the line, but look at my audiogram, and believe me when I say that the 312 Phonaks I wear have truly liberated me from the previous (rechargeable!) Lumity Life I used to wear. I find that the speech enhancement really IS better, and the clarity and ability to understand speech improved even more over time as I gained confidence using these 312s.

My own 2-cents’ worth is that while the Sphere may be the aid for you, consider the reality of having to recharge them every single day (my rechargeables only give me 15 hrs MAX before they need to be charged up). So right off the bat, you may need TWO pairs of identical aids to get through a long flght. As a passenger, I couldn’t risk DEAD aids as I pass through US Customs, that’s for sure!

You mention that the cabin is the quietest place, which is great, cuz passengers like me who wear aids are BLASTED with 80-90+ dB of WIND NOISE back in the seating area. I typically put my aids into “mute” setting, which is like turning them off. But as a pilot, you won’t have that luxury.

I agree with Raudrive’s advice about having your co-pilot wear a Roger mic so you don’t miss a thing when in the pilot’s seat. Seriously, you will hear that co-pilot even if you leave the cabin and go to the loo at the back of the plane, lol! I use my Roger mic in hotels all the time and still stream “Forensic Files” when I’m halfway down the hallway going into the laundry room. It’s fabulous, and Phonak’s BT streaming is ROCK SOLID.

You are truly courageous to not only acknowledge that you may benefit from aids, but to actually get out there and try the two leading make/models. As Louie points out, finding a patient, curious and persistent audi is KEY. It’s a partnership for life, if they understand your issues and goals.

Keep us posted on the trials. It could be that the noise-cancelling headset + Phonak/Oticon + streaming portable mic (e.g., Roger for Phonak) is the toolkit to make it work. GOOD LUCK!