This forum is for non aviation related topics, political debate, random thoughts, and everything else that just doesn't seem to fit in the normal forums. ALL FORUM RULES STILL APPLY.
does any one know what can you do it you got ringing in one ear, but I cant confirm yet if its tinitis? Noticed this few weeks ago, after that same ear was clogged for a few days, went to doctor, she cleaned it, but the ringing is still there almost a week after...not too terible, but noticable when i got to sleep.
just wondering if its possible to continue with this career, where the noise is a constant issue, and anyone had any problems with TC on this?? I mean, I still hear fine, just that this ear buzz is pissing me off a lot!
I guess I am just anxious before my appointment with the specialist...
Better hearing protection. Ear plugs (put them in carefully) and an ANR headset such as the Telex Stratus 50-D, which also has plenty of passive attenuation (many ANR headsets do not).
Some people get the ringing, some people don't. I've spent a lifetime around insanely loud engines and stereos, wind noise from riding motorcycles with no helmet, etc and I still hear better than most people my age, and no ringing.
It's not very egalitarian, but I suspect that hearing loss (and susceptibility to it) is genetic. Sorta like cavities. Never had one of those, either.
never heard of Telex Stratus 50-D....but looked around, and they seem to be quite good...any other recommendations? I mean, are higher end Clarks worth it, or even Bose? I mean, if its gonna save my hearing in the end, I could care if its $300-500 more!
thanks, and I hope my buzz is not a sign of hearing loss...
Bose Series X is crap - no passive attenuation, compared to the old Series I and II, which the Telex Stratus 50-D is basically a new and improved version of.
Dave Clamps are amazingly durable, but other, more delicate headsets will have more attenuation.
Another option is clarity aloft - they're basically passive earplugs, but ya gotta put them in just right. If you do, I think you get around 45 db with them. Then, put a pair of mickey mouse ears on top of that .... only problem is that they're not ANR, so after many hours of flying, the bass (which ANR gets rid of) can fatigue you.
Some people like the lightspeed. Kinda cheaply made, IMHO, but they do work well.
Hearing damage doesn't show up for up to 2 years, so you are feeling the effects of old damage. Tinitus is an occupational hazard, and I know most pilots my age have it. I started flying Beavs when there was a WWII headphone and a hand-mike. The 180s had a cabin speaker - I made my own headset from microphone cartridges (high impedence) and a logger's hearing muff. I have been told I am a good candidate for hearing aids, but I only really need them in the bar.
---------- ADS -----------
"What's it doing now?"
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
got you...so Bose I/II are better then the new X, but you still would go for Telex from what I read...the earplugs, seem little messy to deal with I guess...but thanks a lot though!
1) put in a pair of cheap non-aviation earplugs that you squish and roll up before you put them in (eg yellow foam), then
2) put on a pair of Telex Stratus 50-D and turn on the ANR. Between the passive of the earplugs and the 50-D, and the ANR of the 50-D, you will have an awesomely quiet background level of noise - you simply won't believe it.
3) set the volumes on the radio/intercom/headset as required, to get past the earplugs.
This will work just fine in a cockpit with a noise level well in excess of 120db.
just to be clear...if you guys can help on this...I researched online that a small a/c propeller cockpit is rated at about 95dB.
so when you put headsets on, the NNR indicated (say 23dB), means you actually will hear noise on a 72dB level? Or am I wrong?
And to make it more confusing, whats the deal with ANR and NNR ratings...I understand it has to do wiht Active Noise Cancelling (ANC)headsets and the regular ones...but for an example,
David Clark H20-10XP has ANR od 20dB plus Passive NR of 22dB...so when ANC is turned on, I get 42dB reduction, on lets use the same noise of 95db in a cessna??? Correct?
Good quality headsets like Hedley has mentioned is paramount to protect your hearing. As for the ring, try a white noise machine on a low setting as that has worked for me in the past. When travelling I just use the dreaded Ipod on a very low setting and soft music. Both drown the noise and allow you to get some sleep.
I don't have the same ringing sensation as Mig29....but lately within the last 10 days or so one of my ears has felt the way it does after a rapid decent or climb, when the pressure in your ear changes. Usually this happens all the time and the difference you feel goes away after an hour or so.
Anyways, my one ear is acting funny, feels clogged - yet I clean it everyday......I try plugging my nose and blowing out to equalize the pressure, and it works to an extend, I can feel the ear pop a bit, when it soon returns to the way it was before.
Any ideas? It'll be a few more weeks till my medical insurance is renewed so I can't visit the physician just yet.
My ears have been ringing for years. I just accept it.
I have had 2 audiograms in the last 5 years or so, and according to them, my hearing is absolutely normal.
I'm pretty sure that "ringing" is just normal blood flow to the eardrum. Or I'm friggin schizophrenic. Sure I hear the odd voice, but it just says "hey!" or "@#$! off!" but I've read that's normal too, when you're about to fall asleep.
Stage 1 sleep is cool, all them psychotic images behind your eyelids before you nodd off.
Just this past summer I, too, started to have a ringing in my one ear after a trip and, as the months passed, it came on sooner during the trip, was louder, and lasted longer after the trip before disappearing.
It is always the left ear, which is closest to the window since getting promoted after twenty-plus years either sitting sideways or in the right seat.
The cockpit of the machine I fly for a living is pretty quiet- we can talk across the pedestal without appreciably raising our voices and most pilots use the speakers once in cruise and offshore-but I suspect that even that slight increase in noise level has had a cumulative and deleterious effect in the nineteen-thousand hours I have listened to it.
BTW, the DC-9 was easily the quietest airplane I have ever had the pleasure to fly. I recall my first takeoff after all the sim training: the throttles went forward, the runway started to roll by, but there was zero noise. It was so different that it was a little disorienting initially. The machine was so quiet that, at night, the whisper of the air over the nose would go up the musical scale a note or so when we encountered cloud. Honest to God. And even a trace of ice in the dark would also announce itself with an increase in the noise. The nose was so far from the engines that there was zero vibration, and Douglas had to put a tiny mechanical vibrator on the back of the mechanical altimeter, so it wouldn't stick. And we could hear it ticking away, although it wasn't much louder than a wristwatch.
This just made the upgrade to the DC-8 all the harder. My first training flight in that was a disaster: the last item in the lineup checklist wass to turn on the cabin compressors, which wail away around 40,000 rpm just under your feet, then I opened the throttles and away we went.
The training Captain was shouting at me, the Second Officer was shouting at me, and ATC was chattering away in my headset, but I couldn't hear anything but the roar of the airplane itself. It was so distracting that, by the time I came over the threshold on landing, I just closed the throttles and let it drop; I just wanted the noise to stop.
Then spent the layover sitting in my hotel room thinking what an awful mistake I had made by switching to the Eight.
Of course, the Eight wasn't any noisier than most airliners, it was just that the Nine was amazingly quiet.
I always wear a full helmet with ANR when I fly the homebuilt, and wear a passive headset when flying the family Cessna, but I guess all those recreational hours in the Cub and the Pitts has finally caught up to me.
As the 747-400's were so noisy( the standing shock wave at cruise Mach numbers was right over the part of the fuselage with the largest cross-section: the cockpit roof) and the pilots sat so close to the windows and skin that Sennheiser reached a purchasing agreement with the airline for ANR headsets.
This agreement was recently renewed, and, a couple of months ago, I was fortunate enough to fly with an F/O who had one for the ringing in HIS ears, and was kind enough to let me try it while he was off duty in the bunk.
I noticed a marked decrease in the ringing, despite using the usual Plantronics with the custom earmold for the rest of the flights, so I ordered one, and have used it for two trips so far.
And I sit here now, two days after my last trip of twenty hours airborne in less-than fourty-eight hours away from home, yet having flown with Number Three Daughter in the Cessna since, without a ringing in my ear.
So it is possible to arrest the damage caused by long-term exposure, but I don't know if it can be reversed.
The company Flight Surgeon has had good results with acupuncture, which is understandable if it is nerve related.
The Sennheiser we use is the on-the-ear model, with the smaller earcups. They are optimized for bizjets and airliners, and not intended for turboprops or recips.
Hearing is a funny thing in that we don't realize that we are doing ourselves irrepairable damage until it is too late.
Like a lot of things in life.
I wonder if just wearing passive protection while sawing and planing and routing in the workshop might have exacerbated the problem....
Ralliart wrote:Hey guys....
Anyways, my one ear is acting funny, feels clogged - yet I clean it everyday......I try plugging my nose and blowing out to equalize the pressure, and it works to an extend, I can feel the ear pop a bit, when it soon returns to the way it was before.
I've had similar symptoms over the last 5 years or so. In my case it was strictly too much ear wax in the ear that had dried out. Cleaning the ear myself didn't have much effect .. the doctor took a look and the wax was all dried out. The recommendation for me was to put a drop or two of oil (vegetable or similar) in the ear before going to sleep and laying/sleeping sideways for awhile. It takes a few days before it starts to clear up.
We had Sennheisers in our simulators and they fairly rapidly disintegrated. We could check some out when we flew and the set I kept seemed to keep working but I babied them. You have to be very gentle with them.
---------- ADS -----------
"What's it doing now?"
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
