The big issue I just had was flying with a quiet talker. He was always below my threshold of hearing. It was really frustrating. On my old fleet, I could just turn up my headset. I don't know what to do next time I get someone quiet. Thus, maybe a good hearing aid that takes out the background noise.

 

Things won’t change overnight. When I’m PF I’ve started setting up for hot mic a la the Guppy below 180. If asked, I just say I want to make sure the CA hears me. First time I did it the CA was impressed at how clear the comms were and asked how to set it up. Now I’m trying to flip one CA at a time. As more Guppy CAs take refuge in the 777 I think you’ll get an increasingly agreeable audience. I also go on ANR headset whenever I’m listening to foreign controllers, when the other pilot trying to get by just on speaker gets embarrassed with being repeatedly helped out by me with calls and freq changes… I figure he/she might give ANR a go. Flew a transcon the other day with the CA up on hot mic the whole way, it was a treat.

 

I’m noticing the same on my fleet. Every CA I asked in the past year or so to go on the intercom is either happy someone else wants to or somewhat begrudgingly does it. Yet to have one refuse.

it’s a big culture shift and getting a hearing aid is not going to fix it. We all need to protect our hearing and our certificates, the only time I’ve ever had communication issues in the flight deck were before I started pushing for intercom usage.

 

Which fleet?

 

You really need to see a good audiologist to find out exactly how much hearing loss and establish a baseline for future testing. Sometimes hearing loss is reversible depending on the underlying reason. They can also test for discrimination with background noise and will determine your word counts solo and in sentences. I had much the same issues you have and waited far to long to get checked.

 

Ask him to speak up. He’ll either get tired of you not answering and comply, or you can relax in silence. Not a problem either way.

 

That's a good idea. I think it's a long time coming.

 

You would think. I was leaning in listening and it still wasn't enough. I do like the silence though.

 

Simple solution- wear a noise cancelling headset. The cockpit is loud.

What’s more important, talking about the TA for 6 hrs, or talking to your family for 6 decades?

 

I thin it’s time we look at re-working our audio panels in every fleet.

Coming from corporate and military, we had a VOX (voice activated intercom) which would activate the mic when a pilot spoke (or chewed if he left the vox on while eating). Both pilots could wear their headsets on or in both ears with the bliss of noise cancelling. Missed calls were very rare and both pilots could hear each other clearly, even when flying with soft talkers.

I believe this to be a safety issue. Flying with a soft talker who mumbles his call outs is is a threat that could be minimized with a VOX system. Likewise, wearing a headset correctly minimizes missed or mis understood ATC calls, thus reducing errors and potential runway incursions (for example). Wearing a noise-cancelling headset also reduces fatigue which enhances cockpit safety.

Additionally, pilot hearing loss would be reduced enabling the new 65-67 crowd to be safer longer.

The push back would be that, “at the legacies we have always done it this way” or we can’t convince the company to upgrade our avionics due to cost, or some other nonsense.

If we really want to have a solution to this issue, a VOX audio panel is the best long-term option. Using the hot-mic below 10-18k then switching to speaker isn’t going to save our hearing over the course of 30 years.