Originally Posted by
⌐ AV8OR WANNABE
So, do you now have a first class FAA medical with a waiver?
Please don't take it wrong but I wonder how that works? You must be wearing some kind of hearing device on the ear, right?
A few months ago I flew with a captain who's almost deaf on one ear. He said himself he didn't think he'd pass his next FAA medical without a hearing device of some sort. It was an interesting flight to say the least - and he was only “almost deaf” on one ear...
I have gotten a first class civilian medical, and the only waiver I have on it is for glasses. I am totally deaf in the left ear. I have been so since birth. But I really only notice my loss in loud situations, or when the person is talking extremely quietly and is directly on my left side. When it comes to flying, I hear everything just fine through the headset. I dunno why your captain would think he wouldn't pass unless his 'good' ear was damaged too.
I have talked with military pilots and I have been told that the military flight medical is more stringent, and for reasons I can see why.
FAR 67.107
(a) The person shall demonstrate acceptable hearing by at least one of the following.
1. Demonstrate an ability to hear an average conversational voice in a quiet room, using both ears, at a distance of 6feet from the examiner with the back turned towards the examiner.
2. Demonstrate an acceptable understanding of speech as determined by audiometric speech discrimination testing to a score of at least 70% obtained in one ear or in a sound field environment.
3. Provided acceptable results of pure tone audiometric testing of unaided hearing acuity according to the worst possible thresholds, using the calibration standards of the American National Standards Institute.