Hearing aids and Cessna intercom system

[joycem137]

Hi there. New student pilot. 20 hours. Working towards PPL. Flying out of KPAO. Once I get my PPL, I'm really looking forward to taking my friends on flights here and there.

One of my friends happens to be deaf, or more accurately "hard of hearing," and I'm wondering if there's a good way to accommodate her on the plane. She uses a hearing aid to hear out of her functioning ear. For telephone calls, she uses Skype on her computer and plugs directly into her computer's headphone port and pipes the audio straight into her hearing aid. I'm wondering if there's a way to patch her hearing aid into the intercom system on a Cessna 172. I'm not too familiar with the intercom system and my research so far has been plagued with lots of too-similar search terms that clutter the results. I'd love it if any of you folks have any ideas.

To be fair, we both know ASL (American Sign Language) and won't have a problem communicating if we can't get the intercom to work. It'll just be less distracting and easier on me if I can communicate with her over the intercom, leaving my hands free to control the plane.

 

[bnt83]

Hi there. New student pilot. 20 hours. Working towards PPL. Flying out of KPAO. Once I get my PPL, I'm really looking forward to taking my friends on flights here and there.

One of my friends happens to be deaf, or more accurately "hard of hearing," and I'm wondering if there's a good way to accommodate her on the plane. She uses a hearing aid to hear out of her functioning ear. For telephone calls, she uses Skype on her computer and plugs directly into her computer's headphone port and pipes the audio straight into her hearing aid. I'm wondering if there's a way to patch her hearing aid into the intercom system on a Cessna 172. I'm not too familiar with the intercom system and my research so far has been plagued with lots of too-similar search terms that clutter the results. I'd love it if any of you folks have any ideas.

To be fair, we both know ASL (American Sign Language) and won't have a problem communicating if we can't get the intercom to work. It'll just be less distracting and easier on me if I can communicate with her over the intercom, leaving my hands free to control the plane.

I'm in the same boat being deaf in my right ear and profound (around 50%) in my left. I have found reasonably good ANR headsets to be more than adequate. I take out my hearing aid and turn up the volume. When I can hear well then everyone adjusts the volume on their headset individually.


Hearing aids do not work inside a headset...

My favorite headset to date is a Lightspeed Zulu.

 

[joycem137]

I'm in the same boat being deaf in my right ear and profound (around 50%) in my left. I have found reasonably good ANR headsets to be more than adequate. I take out my hearing aid and turn up the volume. When I can hear well then everyone adjusts the volume on their headset individually.


Hearing aids do not work inside a headset...

My favorite headset to date is a Lightspeed Zulu.

I think that's pretty similar to her hearing level, from what I know of it. Sounds like we will just have to give it a whirl and see how things go, once I get my PPL?

 

[AggieMike88]

Isn't Kimberly located in the same area as the OP?

While this might not help the hearing deficient question, it would give Joyce a good person to hook up with aviation wise.

 

[bnt83]

I think that's pretty similar to her hearing level, from what I know of it. Sounds like we will just have to give it a whirl and see how things go, once I get my PPL?

You probably could do a dry run (ground test) and know if it will work or not. With ANR the difference in clarity when flying vs on the ground isn't much. If she can hear everything on the ground she will be fine in the air.

Happy Flying!

 

[gkainz]

my wife just recently got new hearing aids that are bluetooth compatible, but I have no idea how to or if they can be detected and paired to bluetooth compatible headsets. And since your friend probably doesn't have bluetooth compatible hearing aids, I'm afraid I've added nothing to this thread ... sorry

 

[nddons]

Welcome to PoA, Joyce!

 

[bnt83]

my wife just recently got new hearing aids that are bluetooth compatible, but I have no idea how to or if they can be detected and paired to bluetooth compatible headsets. And since your friend probably doesn't have bluetooth compatible hearing aids, I'm afraid I've added nothing to this thread ... sorry

My experience is that streaming communications to hearing aid via the hearing aid streamer SUCKS BIG TIME. The problem is that there is simply too much noise in the cabin and you need ear muffs to block the noise out. Since wearing ear muffs and a hearing aid isn't comfortable it just makes sense to use a good headset and carry the hearing aid in my pocket. The streamer microphone is not designed for aircraft use and performs terrible.