Hearing tests and Emirates
Okay so I just finished my final interview and am waiting for the word as to whether I fly to Dubai. One thing they didn't ask about and has never been a problem is any handicaps. I am deaf in one ear.
Now I always have been this way so no balance problems or anything associated with partial hearing loss. Naturally - as many of you who might know someone with a similar condition will attest - it is barely noticeable and certainly no handicap. I have flown many times around the world and can hear fine in an airplane cabin, even during take off/ landing.
But if I get the job, I have to fly to Dubai with audiogram results - which will highlight this 'handicap' on paper. At some point, they'll see the numbers and ask "what?"
Here's what the GCAA medical notes say about the other measure of hearing fitness:
4.0 Hearing Check
4.1 ...applicants with a hearing loss....may be declared fit provided that:
* The applicant has a hearing performance in each ear separately equivalent to that of a normal person, against a background noise that will simulate the masking properties of flight deck noise upon speech and beacon signals (Pilots only???)
* The applicant has the ability to hear an average conversation voice in a quiet room using both ears at a distance of 2 meters (6 feet) from the examiner, with the back turned to the examiner.
I presume the latter is for F/A which I would pass easily. As I said I have normal hearing under almost all conditions and you wouldn't notice until we got to a noisy discotheque and I told you to shout into my good side.
I went thru a lot to get as far as the final interview and believe I have a shot. It's a big career change for me and I really want to be an F/A. My plan if I get hired is to turn up with the results, start training as normal and if anyone questions the paperwork, ask them to spot check my hearing under normal conditions as above or under cabin-noise simulation, just to be sure. All I have to do is talk to people, so I figure it will be alright.
I'd be devestated if they want to send me back and I'd be willing to dig my heels in and say, "Well I got this far..."
Do you guys think I'll get busted out of the program for this? If they offer me the job, should I save myself the trouble (give up the one dream I have!) and decline to join Emirates?