Originally Posted by
CAP10B
There's a couple problems with hotmic.
First, no squelch. Five hours of wind noise through the other guys microphone on a transcon while he rocks his rubber band is fatiguing in itself.
Secondly, the lack of "judicious use of hotmic." As much as guys say that they like to use hotmic...totally fine, but they'll be the ones humming, burping, & talking to themselves in the dead space between essential communication. When you're done with your spiel, flick the hotmic switch off.
If you're reading this and you're thinking...nah, that's not me, I don't do that....Guess what, yes you do, and I can hear you 5 by 5.
Finally, there's a cool rocker switch right in front of you if you want to use the intercom, and when you're done, let go of the button.
I agree with everything you said. It's actually something that
used to drive me nuts. Now I'm just so grateful that a guy uses hotmic that I don't care that much about hearing him chew his food, etc. It's amazing how you don't realize how good you've got it until you don't have that thing anymore. For instance, I never knew how good I had it with scheduling software at my previous airline until I came here...
I am very conscientious about only leaving hotmic on when I'm talking. I'm sure there have been times when I've forgotten but it's rare. As has already been said, turn the volume down on the intercomm if you have to. I know it's not perfect, but if it's this hard to get guys to just use the hotmic, imagine how hard it will be to get them to only use it while talking instead of for an entire flight.