Thanks for the reply,
As I understand it, the AME upon discovering the loss is likely to refer my case to the AMS; this is the result of my hearing being *outside* the JAA regs but still having excellent characteristics.
Without wanting to second guess the doctor's opinion, they'll take either one of two paths:
1. The inflexible, short-sighted approach: 'we have to stick to JAA to the letter, I'm sorry but your hearing is outside the limits and there's nothing we can do for you.'
2. The fexible, encompasing approach: 'we understand that your hearing is impaired at this frequency but overall, your hearing is excellent and so is deemed to be of insignificance to flight safety.'
Both my ears have perfect hearing; the loss is an isolated drop at just one frequency. It'd be a crying shame for a potential career to be snuffed by something so insignificant. In eighteen years, it's not dropped a single dB, if anything it's improved.
It's a very odd case and one which JAR reg's does not account for. Having read JAR-FCL 3 and associated Aviation Medical Notes for AME's, it seems as though the system IS flexible in terms of dealing with individual cases. I just hope the AME's have enough responsibility to look at my hearing and paint an accurate, encompasing and correct picture of my overall ability to hear and issue the class 1 as a result.
At the end of the day, I'm a young, healthy chap with flying experience, a desperate drive to fly and no medical issues of any significance - I just hope the AME can see this because on face value, JAR can't!