Bluetooth Enabled Hearing Aids for Foreflight Audio

As we all know, Foreflight issues various audio alerts via an iPad. The problem is getting the alerts to ones' ears. With the engine running, I certainly can't hear them through the tiny iPad speaker. Until now, I had thought my only option was either a Bluetooth-enabled audio panel ($$$) or a Bluetooth-enabled headset ($$$). Recently, though, I accidentally stumbled across a third option: Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids! I never have trouble hearing ATC with my headsets on, but I'm of an age where I'm starting to have difficulty hearing the TV set. Out of consideration for my wife ("Honey, what did he just say?") I decided to get myself some hearing aids from the VA. It took a while to get them, but the first set they gave me were Phonak Audeo-B devices. They work well, but when the audiologist was programming them, she mentioned that they had Bluetooth. Immediately, I thought of my iPad! Sadly, we discovered that the Phonak units would only connect to a phone via Bluetooth, not a streaming device like the iPad.

After the audiologist and I discovered this, she said we would trade in my Phonaks for a different brand of hearing aid, the Oticon Opn1 - MiniRITE-T (I think this is correct). I have no idea how long it will take to get these new aids but, in the meantime, she gave me a single "demo" unit so I could try it out. I went flying yesterday and it actually works! I could hear "Approaching Runway 35", "500 Feet", and all the other alerts in my left ear with the headset on. It also plays music.

These particular Oticon hearing aids only work with iPhones or iPads. The full list and the instructions for pairing them with your device is at the link above. See? There are benefits to getting older!

A fourth option (assuming the iPad doesn't have a headphone jack) is to get a standalone Bluetooth receiver and wire it to your Aux In on your Intercom (or COM). There are many available for well under $50 on Amazon.

(for those of us not quite ready for hearing aids yet...)

Snowflake said:

A fourth option (assuming the iPad doesn't have a headphone jack) is to get a standalone Bluetooth receiver and wire it to your Aux In on your Intercom (or COM). There are many available for well under $50 on Amazon.

Click to expand...

That's another good idea. Yes, I have two extra AUX inputs on my Icom A-210 (no audio panel). One is being used for my AoA. I wonder how the prioritization would work. Right now, if I am hearing ATC audio, the AoA audio drops to almost zero. It's really not ideal, but it (mostly) works. With the hearing aid, the alerts only appear in my left ear and ATC audio comes through at normal volume in both ears. I do have a headphone jack on my iPad so I guess I could come up with some kind of connector to feed that to the Icom. But once again, the audio alerts would be squelched if the Icom were receiving something. The hearing aid gives me a totally independent system.

Hearing

If your not a person who can take advantage of VA, The next BEST place for ALL
brands of hearing aids is Costco ! They are 2nd to VA in number of aids sold ! The best part, their sales people are on salery,not commission ! ALL OF OTHER
HEARING AID DEALERS ARE LIKE GOING TO A USED CAR DEALER,PRICE IS
USUALLY NEGOTIABLE FROM RIDICULOUS HIGH TO WHAT EVER YOU ACCEPT !
Unfortunately for me, who has worked around race cars and airplanes without
any hearing protection until to late.Have used various brands over last 30 yrs.

I took a look at the COSTCO website and they have a lot of different hearing aids. Just be sure that the ones you pick will work with streaming audio, not just cell phones. Even my audiologist wasn't aware of that originally.

Costco

Plus 1 for Costco.........
Audiologst quoted 8K+
costco 3K

Update

Since my original post, I've switched from Phonak to Oticon Opn1 MiniRITE hearing aids and am extremely happy with them. Not only do they work well as hearing aids, but the Bluetooth in my iPad connects well to one or both ( my choice) of my hearing aids and the Foreflight audio alerts come through loud and clear. Just today I learned that I can program the hearing aids for various noise situations from my iPad:

1 = General
2 = Speech in Noise
3 = Comfort
4 = Music

I guess #2 would be what I should fly with.

I also learned how to adjust the L-R balance and set Mono/Stereo. Whoo-hoooo! I'm connected! All these settings on the iPad are in ACCESSIBILITY. I have more testing to do because when flying two days ago, I could hear whistling sounds from air leaks around the canopy that I could never hear before. I'll have to adjust programs to see which is best to filter that out.

I can also play stereo music from my iPad to my hearing aids. I need to check the priority to see if the Foreflight alerts override the music.

The last thing I recently learned is that - wouldn't you know it? - hearing aids are so expensive thanks to government regulations. Thankfully, those regulations are going away next year so the price of some aids will be dropping into the $500 range or lower. Story here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzM-S_xcsC0