Helicopters, Choppers and Whirlybirds.

Sorry, for wanting to vent/rant... or needing a virtual hug.

Had a decent spike going on for about two weeks, tried to take it easy... which in wintery Canada generally means staying at home. I jog now and then and find it a great way to remove the stress/anxiety from me during a spike... it usually spikes after the exercise then subsides to it's pre-jogging level but overall the endorphins or whatever "feel good" chemicals generally make me "at ease" with whatever tinnitus or spike I have.

Last Thursday, running in a quiet park... and I heard what I thought was a snowblower way off in the distance of the crisp winter air. I thought okay, well it's far away and won't bother me... but as I got within 200m of my car, it turned out to be a helicopter (a Eurocopter AS 350 B3 for aviation buffs, not the quietest on the block)... flying directly over me at about 900 ft (according to FlightRadar 24).

Stupidly, if I had recognized it earlier I could have put my plugs in... but I froze dead in my tracks with my worse ear turned to the chopper. I reckon it peaked around 85-90 dB with the whole episode lasting about 20 seconds from the time the noise became unbearable and until it passed. I held my hands over my ears, which I now reckon does nothing for attenuation, except for the really high frequencies.

Needless to say, my ears the next day were spiked even more with the second day after worse (I always seem to have a delayed reaction... or is that delayed hearing loss setting in?). Debated about Prednisone... but after being on it early in January for a short course, decided against it (made me way too panicky)... it was "only" around 85db for a very short time, so I thought it wouldn't warrant it.

Flash forward to today (Thursday)... talking on the friend to an associate in my office, when I hear the familiar rumble. Same day, different time, same chopper and almost same route (closer to me than the previous route of course). At one point my room began to rumble, so I opened the door and stepped out only to hear the whine in my house after a curious family member decided to open the back door (in the freezing weather) and take a look at the chopper. FFS.

Then I am sitting watching the CBS Evening News and they have a report about Trump and they cut to a clip of his now infamous (in my mind) "heading to the chopper press conferences"... and I get the full-on whine of Marine One in my living room. Despite keeping the volume low, the networks definitely boost the gain on these clips so you can actually hear what he is saying... along with the noise of his chopper.

Is it just me or does anybody hate these contraptions with a passion? I used to think commercial jets were a nuisance, but I think I have found a new foe in trying to keep some peace and sanity in my life.

Whats especially bothersome is that I was planning to head on a long-deserved trip overseas within a week or two (I somehow find my peace with the world in a swimming pool in Bali under the stars).... but now with this all-time-high tinnitus, flying is way out of the question. I often feel like my body is keeping me prisoner here.

 

@frischky
This happens to me a lot too. There are some helicopters that fly low over the area where I live. The few heaviest are twin engine Eurocopters from the same era, but four times heavier and have four times more powerful engines than AS350 has. They are quite loud as the rumble of the engine and the blades can be heard from miles away. When they head to the sea during storm, they are super loud. If I happen to be out when they fly by or if they fly directly over my house, I´ll just plug my ears with my fingers or move to a more silent room and wait until they pass. I don´t think they have affected my tinnitus in any way.

 

Thanks for the reply... yeah, I suspect the "mental shock" of it has been more damaging to my T than the actual noise.

Just seems like I've been talking wound upon wound to my hearing lately, hoping that my brain still remembers it's old baseline and gets back to it soon enough. It's bad enough getting knocked down, but not when you are trying to get back up again.

 

There's no where to hide.

Something similar happends to me from Spring to Fall. I live in the upscale suburbs 60 miles North of NYC and every neighbor have a couple of acres of land around me that they MUST keep pristine. The lawn machines are like helicopters!!! They are so loud! They take hours cutting that grass then followed by the trimmer and then the darn blower!

And I swear, they each pick a different day to do this!
So almost everyday I have to close all my windows and doors until they finish! And to top it....when the guy that comes to cut our grass comes I have to leave the house!!! Ughh….

And yes, of course this stresses me and makes me anxious. sigh

Ahh but thank God for Sundays....Sundays no one cuts the grass.

 

Ahh yes, the trifecta... reminds me of the family condo in Florida (which I would love to go to right now, but considering they are jackhammering all new balconies for another month... is a no go)... the landscape guys must have removed the muffler from their blowers to get extra pushing power.

I can be inside my condo, sitting inside the bathroom and that racket is still like they are inside the unit!

 

Dear Lord! Is this what they do? It's terrible the noise.

I have to confess, in some occasions I just went and took a looooong shower until they finished...lol

Oh the things we must endure....

Once

 

From what I've read, blocking your ears by pressing the tragus equals around 25db of noise reduction. It's our emergency ear protection. I'm usually good at doing it quickly, but sometimes there's a brain delay...

 

Yeah I didn't end up doing that as I've read a few stories on here where people pushed too hard and had ill effects after (although I would consider those isolated cases). I ended up just putting my hands (can't remember if my wooly gloves were on which would have given some more sound deadening) over my ears.

Here is an interesting page (click the graph) that shows at least in one test, the attenuation of different "emergency measures" when it comes to loud noises...

https://solentacoustics.wordpress.com/2015/11/19/natural-hearing-protection-hands/