Need to buy headset

[EatSleepFly]

They once sent me a complete retrofit kit for free just for emailing them a 45 second MP3 file of a Cessna 182 in flight so they could use it for testing. I don't know if the promo is still going or not, but check their website. You might be able to get yourself some free new ear seals and headpad.

 

[donttouchanything]

Spend the cash on a good ANR headset. You'll be glad you did when you have grandchildren.

 

[Ralgha]

I'd recommend any of the XL or 3G series Lightspeeds, I personally have a 25XL. Yeah they're a few hundred bucks, but super comfortable and extremely quiet. I've flown with DCs too, don't remember which model, and they really don't measure up to the Lightspeeds as far as I'm concerned.

Lightspeed also has great customer service (so does DC though). I needed my headset tuned up, so I mailed it to them on a Thursday and got it back on the following Monday! All for free too, and it's 2 years out of warrenty.

 

[I_Money]

Once you go ANR you will never go back. To me a good headset, that makes communications easy, and is comfortable to wear is worth every cent I spent on it, and considering how much you spend on the airplane for your PPL, the headset is really quite cheap.

 

[Josh]

http://www.telex.com/aircraft/products.nsf/pages/Stratus_50-D

Gets

 

[kellwolf]

Okay, here's my question on ANR since I've never tried them. Can you still hear the engine? My friend and I were having that discussion one day, and neither of us would feel comfortable flying w/o keeping one ear on the engine. It's a sub-concious security blanket for us, I guess.

 

[montanapilot]

well i flew with my ANR for the first time today and Yes you can hear the engine. I think you can actually hear it better than before. The main noise frequencies the ANR blocks is propeller noise.

 

[Josh]

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=anr+headset

There is another way to look for headsets.

Yeah, I'd say the change in wearing an ANR headset, as far as improvement in what you hear and understand, is almost as drastic as going from wearing no headset, to wearing something. If you recall, not wearing a headset in a small plane, you typically have to shout to the person next to you, especially at anything beyond idle power settings. Put a headset on, and you can talk normal. Put ANR on, and almost that much more of a change.

Josh

 

[aloft]

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, here's my question on ANR since I've never tried them. Can you still hear the engine?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes you can, it's not silenced. What's attenuated by ANR is all the low-frequency rumble. It's hard to explain, but sounds are less apt to be drowned out by the blaring low-frequency noise. Here's a good example: not long ago, in flight, I had a DUATS printout or something that I was referring to, which sort of flopped over; I shook/snapped it upward so I could read it, and was suprised to hear quite clearly the rattle of the sheet of paper. Needless to say, I was impressed.

Now, what's this good for? Maybe hearing the clack-clacking of bad valve lifters that you wouldn't hear otherwise, maybe the avionics cooling fan cutting out, maybe a circuit breaker popping.

Seriously, if you haven't tried an ANR headset, do. Relegate that tired passive headset to your pax.

 

[CAFFEINE]

Heres another vote for active noise cancelling. I have the Lightspeed Twenty-3G's and love them.

 

[HuzzLord]

Just to weigh in I have the Lightspeed 20XLs and love them I've tried on the DCs for several flight and found them not as comfortable as the lightspeeds not to mention the ANR. I got mine off of eBay for about a hundred off and they were probably used a handful of times still had the original warranty card for me to send in, defiantly recommend checking eBay for a good deal.

Chris

 

[kellwolf]

I looked on Marv Golden, and they've got some good prices on the Lightspeeds. I think I'm going to get one of those instead of the DC I was looking at. It's only about $50 more and it's ANR.

 

[Stone Cold]

Just a recommendation...find somebody that has a pair and try them out first. You look like a big guy , and I have had some minor complaints about lightspeed. ANR is everything it's cracked up to be, but I am 6' tall, and teach in a Piper Cherokee that has an overhead trim wheel. The Lightspeeds tend to be taller than DC's. I'm still weighing my options on keeping them or finding a different ANR that's not so tall. They are the most comfortable headset I've worn, but I just can't keep knocking them off my head.