Originally Posted by
Ottopilot
Jsut to be clear: The intercom/phone is for talking to the flight attendants. There is no pilot to pilot intercom in Boeings. You talk loud to communicate. In the 757/767 we take off the headset at FL180 anyway.
The 737 does have a pilot to pilot intercom. Both pilots have to select flight interphone. You talk to each other either by pressing the transmit switch down on the yolk (the same way you talk to the ground crew) or press the ptt on the audio selector panel towards the cabin. This has been a HUGE controversy at Southwest as pilots have been using rubber bands to hold that switch in place thus creating a hot interphone. I'll withhold my comments on that but I've heard using this intercom with a noise cancelling headset makes the day SO nice.
To the original question. Wearing earplugs under a lightweight Telex type of headset is the way to go if you don't have a Bose or Sennheiser or some other million dollar headset.
S.B.