I though I’d post a quick update this morning as I have had some further success with the implant.
I went flying for just the second time today since having the surgery. Prior to having the implant I was having a lot of difficulty understanding all the communication traffic around airports.
I had decided that I would listen to LiveATC to practice, but that did not seem to help. In particular I was listening to BNA (Nashville) ATC and could not understand more than about 50% of any transmission. That was with both hearing aids working and wearing a good quality studio headset.
Then I had the implant and the implant was turned on for the first time and programmed. I tried listening to live ATC again and it did not seem very much improved.
This past week, however, I turned on Nashville Tower at LiveATC and it was almost as clear as if I were sitting next to the controller. Very understandable, very clear. I would say comprehension was in the 80% range and the rest could be filled in from context – it’s a very limited conversation. Some of the communications from pilots were not as comprehensible but sometimes that’s static, accents, or the speed of conversation.
So I followed this up with flying with a CFII friend of mine and was very pleased to be able to understand the transmissions completely. This is good news as I have been avoiding towered airports for a while, not want to have to “say again” to the point that I am annoying.
My pitch recognition also continues to improve even though I have not been ear training.
Charging And Battery
I finally got tired of handling the charger battery all the time and stuck some velcro on the back and onto the outside of the induction coil clips.
This makes it so much more convenient that having to either carry the charger around or put it in a pocket. The downside is that, due to its weight, it tends to drag the charger coils down but so far I have been able to keep it adequately in place to complete the charging.
Overall, the velcro is a great improvement.
Soda Pop Junction
I will be performing at Soda Pop Junction again tonight so it will be interesting to see how the latest programming has affected my music appreciation / singing.