As soon as I finished recording this interview with Olivia Allen, I started searching for local flying instruction. Why? Because she reminded me of a long forgotten item on my to-do list from my pre-cochlear implant days; to learn to fly.

At the time, deafness intimidated me from accomplishing anything that required hearing. After listening to this remarkable cochlear implant recipient, I was inspired to accomplish that goal.

Deaf from birth, Olivia received a cochlear implant at eleven months of age.
Since that time, as she noted in the interview, “The sky is the limit.”

Working her way to obtain a commercial pilot’s license, I think her story will inspire others to reach for their goals. A cochlear implant is the tool you might need to achieve your dreams.

Transcript

Voiceover:

Cochlear Implant Basics is a site for candidates and their families and friends. If you have been told you qualify for a cochlear implant, these podcast interviews tell how receiving a cochlear implant can be a life changing experience. You will meet recipients who face a hearing loss and the hearing aids could no longer provide comprehension of speech or music. They faced growing isolation, inability to socialize or compete in the world of business. The joy of music disappeared. They explained how receiving a cochlear implant changed their lives. Welcome to Cochlear Implant Basics, a reminder Cochlear Implant Basics is not sponsored by anyone nor is it offering medical advice. Please consult your own healthcare provider.

Richard:

Okay. We’re talking to Olivia Allen today. Would you please state your name, the date, and what city you’re in?

Olivia Allen:

My name’s Olivia Allen, today is April 1st, 2022, and I am in Indiana.

Richard:

Tell me a little bit about your hearing loss? I’m going to have a lot of questions after you give your introduction.

Olivia Allen:

So I was born deaf. It took my parents realizing that I failed my hearing test to realize that I was deaf. And it was still a couple weeks after that before they actually realized I was deaf because the nurses told them that I had failed the test. But that it was likely just clogged with the stuff that you have after you’re born. They realized that nothing was soothing me because I couldn’t hear anything, so that’s when I became deaf.

Richard:

How old were you when they realized you had a problem?

Olivia Allen:

Oh, I was born deaf, so they knew right away.

Richard:

Were they in denial or did they get help for you right away?

Olivia Allen:

Oh, they helped me right away, but I didn’t get my surgery for cochlear implants until I was 11 months old.

Richard:

Why’d they wait so long for that?

Olivia Allen:

I got my surgery done in 2001 and they didn’t do surgeries that young, so I was the youngest at that time. Then like a month later they did six month old.

Richard:

So you had them done one at a time or two at the same time?

Olivia Allen:

I just have one cochlear implant on my right.

Richard:

And you never considered one for your left side?

Olivia Allen:

I don’t have a cochlear implant for my left side, no.

Richard:

Do you have a hearing aid in the left side or no hearing there?

Olivia Allen:

Just the cochlear implant on the right side and nothing else on the left side.

Richard:

Okay, I think people will be curious why not? Is there a medical reason or you just prefer not to have that?

Olivia Allen:

It’s been so long that I just never really wanted another one, and I was doing perfectly fine with one. So I just decided to stay with one cochlear implant.

Richard:

Tell me a little bit about your time in school? Were you able to function well? Did you go to mainstream school or special school?

Olivia Allen:

At age three, I went to St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf in Indianapolis. Before they opened in 2001, the Director, Teri Ouellette, she was working with me before then. I was actually the first student enrolled in that school even though I wasn’t going to St. Joseph’s at the time. But after I went there, I had mainstreamed to public school in kindergarten and then stayed there until I became a senior, so 12th grade. And it was a small school, so it was just one school the entire time.

Richard:

Then you developed a passion for flying. How did that come about?

Olivia Allen:

My uncle was an air traffic controller in South Bend, Indiana and Elkhart, Indiana, and they had a day where you could go out as a child to go fly with a pilot for like 15 minutes. It was called Young Eagles. The pilot asked me if I wanted to sit in the front seat with him and I said, “Yeah.” I went up with him and decided that I loved it. I was probably like 10 or 11, maybe 12 years old at the time. I’d always been obsessed with airplanes. Like I would watch them in the sky all the time, and if my dad saw an airplane or my mom saw an airplane, they always pointed it out because they knew I was obsessed with them.

Olivia Allen:

But it wasn’t until my 10th grade year that I really decided, “Oh, that’s what I want to do.” So right now I’m in school for that and I’ll have my private license in less than two months and then my commercial license in about a year after that. At some point, I’ll have to get my flight instructing license to teach other people how to fly so I can get my hours in for the airlines.

Richard:

I’ve got several questions about the flying. Obviously, the use of the radio, has that become a problem or did you have to learn special techniques to do it?

Olivia Allen:

Talking to air traffic control is definitely difficult. They have their own lingo, they talk very fast, and so what I typically have to do is just tell them that I’m a student pilot and they need to slow down. Usually, that works but I have my cochlear set all the way to high, and then I have the Bose aviation headset and that drowns out as much noise as you can get. It’s the best headset on the market right now. It definitely helps drown out, but there’s definitely times where I don’t catch everything so I have to ask them to repeat themselves.

Richard:

Well, there’s a question I have for you about you’re not streaming, you’re listening through the headset like I am now, just with the headset over your processor?

Olivia Allen:

Yeah, I took the headset over my processor and hear as best as I can like that. I don’t stream or anything like that.

Richard:

Okay, because I’ve spoken to other pilots, now obviously, not as young as you, and they’ve said that the FAA is allowing more prosthetic devices in the cockpit such as streaming to your headset and all. But that doesn’t seem to be your issue at all.

Olivia Allen:

No, I actually didn’t know that was a thing until recently. I talked to Jordan Livingston, he’s also another pilot that has a cochlear implant. As far as I know, he’s the only other pilot to get the commercial license with the cochlear implant. But he streams from his cochlear implant into his headset. I didn’t know that was a thing, but with the new processor I’ll be getting, we’re trying to figure out how that’s going to work out. If we’ll even be able to do that or he’ll end up having to do the same thing I do.

Richard:

Which processor do you have now? What are you using?

Olivia Allen:

I have the Nucleus 6, but I’ll be getting the Nucleus 7. As soon as I get my private pilot license, I’m going to get that. So that way it doesn’t mess with the process of getting my license just because I don’t want to have to spend forever getting used to it. Because it took me like five months to get used to my Nucleus 6 after having the Freedom still.

Richard:

Okay, so you have upgraded from one to another because I’ve interviewed other people who’ve had their processor, their internal processor for 35 years and now they’re on the seventh or eighth generation of external processors. So you’ve been one upgrade since Freedom and now you ready for the N7?

Olivia Allen:

Yeah, I’m not sure what the one I had before the Freedom was called, but it was a box that was on my back and that’s the one I had for a while. I’ve been through the system.

Richard:

That’s fine. I mean, a lot of people are going to be very impressed with the fact you’re using the cochlear implant, that you’re so young, and you’re going to be getting a commercial license. What happens when you get the commercial license? Do you have to go through a period of apprenticeship or will the airlines hire you?

Olivia Allen:

Well, basically, once I get my commercial license, I can be hired. As a private pilot, I can’t so this will just allow me to go… If like a skydive company wanted to hire me, they could, or anybody else that they wanted to take a small trip, they could pay for everything and I would just transport them from one place to another. But, basically, I have to have 1500 hours to go to the airlines. Once I get my commercial, I can build up my hours so that I can get those 1500 hours to go to the airlines.

Richard:

How long do you think that might take you?

Olivia Allen:

If I become a flight instructor, hopefully, it won’t take me more than two or three years to get all those hours. Hopefully, I’ll be in the airlines by the time I’m like 26.

Richard:

You’re absolutely amazing. Did your parents encourage you to go for this or something you just did on your own?

Olivia Allen:

You mean as far as the flying part?

Richard:

Yes.

Olivia Allen:

Well, my parents always told me that I could do whatever I wanted to, so they were very supportive when I told them that I was going to be a pilot. I think it’s something they didn’t expect, but they also did because they knew how obsessed I was with airplanes. As you can see, I actually have a big old canvas board behind me with an airplane on it. I’ve just always been told that nothing can stop me unless I let it so I just go for what I want.

Richard:

It’s interesting because on the website, one of the things I like to do is find people like you who can encourage others and say to them, “If you move forward and get a cochlear implant, your world opens up.”

Olivia Allen:

The sky’s the limit. But even the moon has footprints on it, so I guess we can’t really say the sky’s the limit, can we?

Richard:

Have you met people who have a hearing loss to severe hearing loss? And did you help them move along to show them what a cochlear implant can do?

Olivia Allen:

There’s actually a girl in my town in Colfax that has a bilateral cochlear implants. Her parents adopted her from China, so they didn’t know anything about cochlear implants. But since I was raised around them, they knew like what their options were and they actually got her cochlear implant. Then a couple years later she got another one, so she’s doing pretty well because they knew about cochlear implants because they had somebody to actually relate to.

Richard:

That’s important, very important. I think you’ve told me before, you mentioned you will be doing work with skydivers next summer, I believe, is that correct?

Olivia Allen:

Yes, I will be working at the Frankfurt Airport. It’s like 10 miles from me and they have a skydive operations, and I’ll be bringing people back from the middle of the field, back to the ramp. I’ll be doing some office work, and likely, I will be sitting in the co-pilot seat as much as I can to just get some time in an airplane.

Richard:

Have you done skydiving yourself?

Olivia Allen:

I have, yes. It was pretty fun.

Richard:

That [inaudible 00:10:50] my next question, did you wear your implant when you went diving?

Olivia Allen:

I wore up in the plane but I handed it to the person that I was strapped to and he put it in his pocket. And then once we reached the ground, that’s when I put it back on.

Richard:

I was wondering because once in a while people ask the question, can you wear your cochlear implant when you’re skydiving? I had no way to know to answer that.

Olivia Allen:

If you wore a helmet, you could. But usually the people that are skydiving, the instructor will wear the helmet and you won’t. So unless you have your own helmet, definitely do not attempt it.

Richard:

That’s right. Let me ask you another question, anything you would like to advise young people who are afraid to get a cochlear implant because it’ll stick out on their head or will make them look different. Sometimes they’re reluctant to move forward because of that. And I would love to know your impressions, what you would tell them about getting the cochlear implant?

Olivia Allen:

I can’t say whether or not I would’ve gotten a cochlear implant if I was my age now, and all I knew was sign language. But I’m definitely glad that my parents got it for me because it’s opened up so many doors for me. I’m sure people do look at my cochlear and wonder what’s going on? But the gift of hearing is so special that I would not be a pilot if I didn’t have my cochlear implant. Deaf people, in general, without a cochlear implant, there’s only about 300 pilots that are private pilots, but they can only really stick around in the area that they were certified in. Since I have my cochlear, I can go wherever I want and I’m getting my commercial license, so I’ll be able to go to the airlines. Anything’s possible with the cochlear implant.

Richard:

This is very interesting. I didn’t realize there were 300 pilots who were deaf. That’s brand new to me. They have to stay within sight of the airport or close to?

Olivia Allen:

Yeah, so there’s an airport near me called Kokomo Airport, and they have a deaf woman who’s a pilot, but she’s only allowed to stick around locally. She can’t go like more than 50 nautical miles. She has to stay in the area just because she can’t hear the radio calls and stuff. There are deaf pilots, but there’s only one other commercial pilot that I know of that has the cochlear implant.

Richard:

Just amazing. You’re going to absolutely inspire people to move forward, and I really thank you for your time. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us before we sign off?

Olivia Allen:

I would say just don’t let anything hold you back. You’re in charge of your own destiny, so other people are definitely going to tell you can’t do something. My dad’s sister-in-law told a bunch of people that I would never be a pilot but here I am, going to school every day so that I can follow my dreams.

Richard:

Fantastic. Olivia, thank you so much for your time and the interview, and I’m sure other people have questions and I’ll be back to you, at some point, I’m sure. Thank you so much.

Olivia Allen:

Thank you. I hope my story will make someone realize that chasing your dreams isn’t impossible and they should definitely go for it.

Richard:

Thank you so much. Absolutely, I couldn’t agree with you more.

Olivia Allen:

Thank you.