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I will be flying abroad next week. Do you all put your aids to flight mode?

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I have had my Costco ReSound Fortes since 12/22. My aud knew I was leaving next week on a trip abroad. I was going through the User Guide and found a section which states “Warning: When boarding a flight or entering an area where RF transmitters are prohibited, wireless functionality must be deactivated.
Your ReSound Forte hearing aid allows you to control it from your smart phone or remote control 2. However, in some areas you are requested to turn off wireless communication.”

It gives instructions for doing that, but states at the bottom, “NOTE: Flight mode mus be activated by your clinician in order to be controlled”.

During flights with my KS4s, I never turned them off or did anything. I don’t know if I’m required, as “some area are” to turn them off. I can call Costco tomorrow and talk with them, but am wondering if I’m missing something. If the aids are in “flight mode”, then they aren’t working for you during the flight? I have no idea if my clinician activated this either.

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I’ve never turned mine off or put them into flight mode on any of our OS trips. But I won’t wear them at all in hot humid Asian countries, that’s just my preference not to. It causes too many issues for me on my return to Aus.

I was flying last week and the in flight magazine listed two things that never needed to be switched off.

  1. Hearing aids
  2. Pacemakers!

Thanks, everyone. That’s a relief! I was getting worried that I should have been turning them off all along, although I never saw a sign that said to do that. If I’m in a place where that’s required, what do you think the sign looks like? Maybe just says “turn off all RF devices?”

In reply to @FredO

FredO, I’ve never turned them off while in flight. I don’t seem bothered by it. I may put on the noise filter or turn them down, or both, but I don’t turn them off.

Edited

Your new aids use Bluetooth and that’s what needs to be shut off.

I don’t have your brand of hearing aid, but the Bernafon that I’m testing has you hold down the one of the hearing aid’s buttons for at least 7 seconds to turn it off and back on.

The hearing portion of your hearing aid is suppose to work just find with Bluetooth turned off. You just lose the Bluetooth function. So your phone wouldn’t pair with your aids.

Your hearing aid fitter should know how to do this. If not, call another Costco hearing center.

If you can’t figure out how to turn Bluetooth, then I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s more important that you be able to hear.

The directions for turning it off are in the user manual on page 28.

Follow these steps to turn off wireless mode:
1.
For each hearing aid, open and close (open-close, open-close, open-close) the battery door three
times within a 10-second period.
2.
Double-dings for ten seconds (
etc.) indicate that your hearing aid is in Flight mode.

Hopefully the double-dings are loud enough for you to hear with the hearing aid off.

Honestly, I don’t think I would worry about it if you can’t get it turned off. I wouldn’t think the transmitters in the hearing aids are all that powerful.

The part I am bringing to light, though, is the words that follow: NOTE: Flight mode must be activated by your clinician in order to be controlled"

Since that appears, I don’t believe my clinician has activated that. Therefore, I would think those steps wouldn’t work for me.

Fair enough. If you have tried opening and closing the battery latch the required amount times and it doesn’t do anything, then that just confirms that it hasn’t been activated.

The Phonak that I’m also testing doesn’t have Bluetooth so it’s not going to be a problem for some brands of hearing aids. The Bernafon has Bluetooth, but you simply hold down the hearing aid button for at least 7 seconds to turn it off.

When you go to Costco to get it activated, you can point out to their hearing aid fitters that they need to activate it or at least ask if you wanted it activated for the ReSound.

Anyhow, it’s good information to pass on for those who have hearing aids with Bluetooth.

Thanks for pointing it out.

I haven’t tried putting it in flight mode. I was asking if others have when flying, or if it’s required, and to what extent you can use your aids when doing so.

Well since Bluetooth in the hear aid is fairly new, I suspect most folks have never read that part of the user manual and are unaware of this issue. It will be interesting to know if the steward or stewardess says something to you.

Anyhow, your Bluetooth hearing aid is radiating a 2.4 Ghz signal while turned on.

I don’t know if it’s a government regulation or airline policy that is requiring the wireless part of your hearing aid to be turned off. But the option/function is installed in the hearing aid and listed in the user guide. So there must be some reason.

My guess it that it only matters, if at all, during take-off and landing as the airlines sell wireless access to the Internet, which also uses 2.4 Ghz, once the plane reaches cruising altitude.

Anyhow, if I keep the Bernafons, this will be the first Bluetooth hearing aid that I’ve owned in the last 6 years or so. If I get on an airplane, I will turn it off even though I don’t think it will cause the plane to drop out of the air.

No sense in spitting into the wind if you don’t have to.:wink:

I’ll be watching your thread to see if anyone with Bluetooth hearing aids are turning off Bluetooth before boarding the plane.

I may ask the gate attendant. It seems easy enough to just remove them on take off and landing, keep the battery compartment door open. I also may toy with getting them in airplane mode here at home before I leave I asked my clinician, and she’s going to check on changes. She wasn’t aware she needed to activate it. Thanks for your response.

I always turn my hearing aids off in-flight. I can’t hear over the ambient noise with or without them.

Considering the proximity needed for to connect to a device I really don’t see how a HA could interfere with anything on a plane. The whole turning off cell phones is quite arbitrary. If the devices were so dangerous as they imply then there is no way they would be allowed on the plane in the first place. They don’t allow guns or aerosols because they actually are dangerous. If HAs (or phones) were a real danger they would be banned too.

In reply to @TonyG

This right here is my personal belief. I’ve only just started hearing about this within the last year. If they tell you that you have to turn off wireless connectivity, though, I guess you have to. But there is good news: all it does is disconnects your ability to use the Bluetooth functions, so you’ll still be able to hear.

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