bluejuice71

I’ve tried all the headsets you’ve mentioned and personally the Clarity Alofts blew the other headsets away. Almost like not wearing a headset at all and hearing protection for both ears and you can hear the other guy talking by slightly breaking the seal on one of the ear plugs.

MadDogMikeATL

I dunno, ask all the guys I see with Bose/UFlyMike setups that aren't TSO'd yet. I started looking at the UFQ L2 for use on long int'l flights while in cruise - when no headset at all is required. Many people think that, when on a "quiet" airplane in cruise, your hearing is safe. I'm not so sure. After years of flying int'l on an airplane that's considered "quiet," I developed some tinnitus. I think it's from the prolonged exposure to the noise, even if the noise level seems comfortable.

When I first started flying int'l, virtually nobody wore a headset or other hearing protection in cruise. Little by little I noticed guys doing something to protect their hearing in cruise. (Especially when the 64-y.o. captain is blasting his speaker!) First it was foam earplugs, but that made it difficult to converse. Then came the "filtering" earplugs, the kind that rock musicians use in concerts. They supposedly filter out the harmful loud noises, but you can still hear other people's voices clearly without them yelling. (But your voice still sounds muffled when talking, which tends to make you want to raise your own voice.) Others used various earbuds. Some just noise cancelling, not plugged into anything. Others use earbuds with an adapter plugged into the airplane, so they could still hear the radio without blaring the speaker.

So when I saw those UFQ L2's, I figured, that would be perfect for use in cruise! (When, again, no headset is required anyway.) Now that I got a bid back to domestic, I'll probably just use those headsets for GA flying. But I really hope they get the TSO cert, because they'd be perfect for airline flying. They would sell tens of thousands of them to airline pilots, I'm sure.

Gspeed

How many pilots here have been ramp checked for TSO certification?



























That's what I thought.

airboss

There are some TSO’d UFM and QC 15 combos out there. Just not many.

RockyBoy

I would say if the other guy has an ANR headset it’s about 50/50 on taking them off above 180. If it’s a short flight I prefer to leave them on. Anything longer than 1:30 and I take them off unless it’s an old 320 with loud fans. If the other guy is using a ship set then they always come off at 180.

Han Solo

I flew with the Clarity Aloft Flex on my last trip and hated it, it's going back. I didn't like the around the ear brackets, they began to hurt after an hour or so. The foam tips kept falling off, I only used it for 2 legs and a tip fell off 3x. The boom mic was about 1/2" to 1" shorter than I needed and also fell out of its housing a couple times. Finally its a pain in the butt to put it on (tug driver wants to talk before you're ready? need to call MX or passenger assist? copy a clearance?) and a bigger pain to properly stow in its case when swapping planes. Sound quality and noise attenuation were fine.

badflaps

I guess they won't let you wear a hook over the ear ear piece any more, right?

TurbineDriver

If you have the DC PRO X headset on and the other guy has his off, can you still hear him talk? Or do you have to slip the ear off?

gloopy

That's his problem. Enough with damaging decibels, split ear communications and loud talking just to accommodate asinine old habits.

m3113n1a1

Depends how loud he talks. But typically I take an ear off like during pushback when we're not using the hot mic, or if I'm trying to talk with the jumpseater in flight and they aren't wearing a headset.