Hot Mic's And Hearing
I fly for a uk scheduled/charter Airline and they use as standard practice the one ear on one ear off method when using headsets.
My AME picked up a degredation in my hearing in my left ear at my last medical which concerns me greatly as I am 27 and potentialy have 30 years of flying ahead of me subject to health etc etc.
My question is, why do Airlines persist in this practice of operating one ear uncovered when all modern jet/turboprop a/c are fitted with pretty good hot mic systems that dramaticaly reduce the volume levels required from the radio kit. One reason I thought of is that it is a throwback to the days of flight engineers when the pilots made need to hear his comments about relevent systems. Another is that it is so you can hear the cabin crew when the come into the flight deck (although this is much harder when you are being blasted in one ear by a busy London ATC station).
At my previous company (flying turboprops) we used a fairly good system of hot mic off on the ground until after engine start and ground crew disconnection then hot mic on thereafter, it served to reduce environmental noise greatly and the lower radio volume levels were much less fatigueing on a long day.
Anybody elses thoughts on this matter would be warmly received, It would be good to hear from any AME's too.