JohnBurke

Bose proflight works fine.

So does turning and talking to the person sitting next to you.

Elevation

I actually don't rubber band much at all. The passenger 767s don't need an intercom and have pretty quiet duct noise with the packs on. The cargo planes get very loud, so I'm not going to judge a person for rubber-banding the mic switch.

My comment is because I keep finding mic switches that stick because people have wadded up so much paper in them. Having a mechanic fix my mic switch by digging out wads of paper is getting old. So, again, thanks everybody for using rubber bands instead of paper wedges.

Elevation

As long as you're not doing paper wedges it's all good.

maxjet

I was told that the rubber band thing shortens the life of the panel. They said that hot Mike panels are built for the additional load.

ACMIguy

I agree on the DC ProX2. It’s the best option for the 767F which is much louder than our pax versions. The noise cancelling is very good. The Bluetooth is very good. The price is significantly better than the awkward looking Bose proflight. It’s also built like a tank and folds up into your fist.

That said, someone offered to sell me their hardly used Clarity Aloft classic for $200 and I always wanted to try one so I went for it. Probably the best sound quality I’ve ever experienced using a headset. Zero noise gets past those ear plugs. I found it comfortable. Passive noise reduction is where it’s at. I recently flew Cincinnati-Leipzig and that headset made the 10 hour flight infinitely less fatiguing. One of my first officers was wearing an older model Light Speed from his Mesa days and we had no trouble communicating with the intercom. The other FO was using the ships Telex 750 and seemed to manage ok but he had the volumes all turned up to max on the audio panel which can’t be good long term.

I don’t give my crew the option….we’re using the intercom. If the plane has hot mics installed, excellent. If it doesn’t we’re using rubber bands, or just our fingers each time we need to speak. The freighter is too loud not to use the intercom. It’s a safety of flight requirement in my opinion.

abxflyr

FWIW we went the flight safety route and (finally) got the company to install a hot mic system. In short, the toggle at the yoke latches in the open intercom position...the rest is VOX/squelch so it's not annoying when neither pilot is speaking. Of course there is always an FO that can't seem to understand they are breathing into the mic causing continuous noise, nothing a slap on the head doesn't fix (j/k). I'm not aware of any differences in a panel for this...and we have several different style audio panels within the fleet. Normally a latching yoke switch probably cost $7 at a local supply house, I'd guess we had to pay $250 each side for it to be on the big B, but well worth it. Safety of Flight