ABSTRACT
A pilot in his early 30's is referred to an Otolaryngologist on account of task saturation and hearing loss. He is having difficulty staying ahead of his jet aircraft while flying and is missing radio calls. He had no difficulty while assigned to a trainer aircraft despite having approximately the same degree of hearing loss. He passes an "injlight hearing evaluation, " but is noted to have difficulty under complex, demanding flying conditions. He is referred to a psychologist to assess his motivation to fly and to rule out a learning disability or other neuropsychological condition. The Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery reveals no central neuropsychological findings. His performance on the Speech-sounds Perception Test places him in the mildly impaired range. His Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) profile and other personality testing results are entirely within normal limits. His responses to diagnostic interviewing were likewise not suggestive of a DSM-III-R diagnosis. His motivation to fly, relatively late in its origin, is nonetheless strong and unconflicted. However, on the WAIS-R he achieves only average scores (when compared to the scores of the population at large). Intersubtest scatter was not significant; his abilities were roughly evenly developed. It seems likely that the trainer cockpit was more forgiving of his peripheral hearing deficit compared with faster jet demands.
