What Flash said. Pretty standard in NROTC.
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Hearing loss
- Thread starter tougs9
- Start date
What Flash said. Pretty standard in NROTC.
UORBulldog
New Member
In Echo this past year all the flight contracts had to go get annual physicals at mainside. I had mine on a Saturday after machine gun week, and I ended up failing the hearing test. It's actually not that hard to fail in reality. The way it's graded is you get a score for every grouping of frequency, I think there's like 4 or 5 sets. There's a minimum to pass each group.. now if you are competing for an air slot and getting the physical it could be disqualifying.. if you already have your contract secure you can retake it, which is what I did, and be fine. After talking to the flight surgeon he said there's also waivers that can be written up (that's if you already have your contract) Remember this is while at TBS, so it could be different policy for failing it if your just getting your initial physical, or any other time.
Yeah, I am a reservist. My hearing has progressively gotten worse since boot camp six years ago. This is the thing, I am a gauranteed flight contract right now, but all that does is give the the chance to go down to Pensacola after TBS. I just don't want to go down there and fail the hearing test, then be forced to take whatever is left over from the ground slots.
I have some hearing loss as well. I asked the technician working the hearing booth at medical about it and he said that most pilots have it and it wasn't a big deal as long as you can hear the radios. If you do get the Nami Whammy, most lieutenants that are redesignated are getting their first or second choice for MOS (assuming you are squared away and dont f___ things up).
smustang51
Registered User
Tougs, I kind of had the same problem that you did which prompted me to call the NAMI ENT department. He gave me a few suggestions and after getting all the necessary paperwork, he said my issues would receive a waiver. One thing I would suggest doing, if you have the means and you're really worried about it, is to get a cockpit communications test done. I did it and it involved convincing the guys at the reserve base to help me out and stick me in a plane with the engines spooled up. In the plane with me was a pilot and a flight surgeon, all of whom had head sets on. All I had to do was initiate conversation with the tower and ground and then take down some ATIS information to prove that I could understand and communicate while in the cockpit. The flight surgeon wrote down that everything was fine and that was that.
Oh man, that is really good to hear. My hearing in my left ear is at about -25 to -35. My hearing in my right ear is about -15 to -20. I have been doing everything that I can to take care of my hearing since my last test and I hope that I can slide through the hearing test during my pre-TBS flight phsyical and my NAMI down in Pensacola. That is all I really care about. I have been listening to radios as a cop for the last five years and have not had a problem. Hopefully that will carry over into being a pilot. Thanks again for the info.
Just to give you guys another person's experience, I had to get a high freq. hearing loss waiver for my right ear to get into the academy, then again had to get a waiver to be pilot qualed. I had some issues getting the flight waiver due to a bad flight surgeon, but the big reason why I got it is that while I was as bad as -65 to -70 at the highest freqs they test I was able to pass the word recognition test with a higher score on my bad ear than good ear (100% to 98%). Basically, waivers are possible, they happen all the time, but you might have to work for it a bit. Don't take no for an answer, keep trying and be prepared to have to go throught the whole waiver process when you check in for API and get "the" NAMI physical. Even though my waiver had been granted by them 6 months earlier they wanted me to go through the whole thing all over again. Also, make sure you keep plenty of copies of your waiver, don't trust them to have a copy in your medical records because if you do they will most certainly lose it.
I know this thread hasn't been active for a while but I am running into a problem with my hearing currently. When I took my flight phys in September I got 40db at 2000hz which is over the 25db limit. At that time the flight surgeon wrote on the flight physical documentation "waiver recommended for hearing loss." My OSO called me today saying that the doctor did not recommend the waiver and that some corpsman told him that even if he submitted it, it wouldn't go through. Who can I call about this or talk to about a getting a waiver for this when all of these people are telling me it's not going to happen? I've already put a call into the flight surgeon to get his story, but I haven't received a call back yet. Thanks for your help.
torpedo0126
Member
40db is considered mild-moderate hearing loss (40db is the cutoff for mild and moderate is at 41). i'm sure there is a cutoff where they won't consider you for a waiver even if it is submitted. but definitely keep pursuing your options
torpedo0126
Member
no problem, I don't know that much. here is what I found in the NAMI waiver guide:
http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/navme...Pages/AeromedicalReferenceandWaiverGuide.aspx
download the ENT section and scroll to hearing loss.
there are no specifically defined limits, and it DOES mention a cockpit test (as one of the previous posts mentioned)
however, I took a blow off communications class my senior year of college, and 40db of hearing loss is not exactly good (not to dampen your hopes). While basically EVERYTHING in the Navy is waiverable to some extent, I'm sure there is some point where someone has to say its too bad.
Maybe someone can shed light on this, but I am pretty sure its not even a doctor that signs off on your waiver. For instance, the person who signs off for PRK waivers in Pensacola isn't a doctor, he's a civilian (I won't post his name). He reviews the Doctor's notes and gives/denies a waiver.
I could have sworn negatives were good whereas positives were bad..? I thought that's how it was at MEPS.
torpedo0126
Member
that is correct. negatives are GOOD. when you hit +20, it is considered hearing loss.