Ear protection
 

What is recommended to do to protect one's ears while flying?

A headset.

A noise-cancelling head set.

USMCFLYR

If you can't afford a good noise-cancelling headset, I have found that good earplugs, along with a regular headset, work fine and cuts down on more of the low tone, fatiguing sounds.

What, say that again...........
 

I don't know where you are in your training, but I feel I probably could have shortened my PPL training by having a headset. It's too hard to concentrate on flying and struggling to hear the CFI. You may have to spring for a portable intercom if your primary trainer does not have one.

If you can't afford a headset+portable intercom, you probably can't afford flying.

Best of luck!

Most FBOs rent headsets so you can do that until you buy one somewhere down the road. I would definitely invest in a decent headset. You might not need a Bose X or Lightspeed Zulu if you are working on your PPL. I am a commercial student and I still have my David Clark 13.4s and it works just fine so far. I would love to get a Bose X or Lightspeed sometime...I hear ANR is a whole different world.:rolleyes:

Thanks, guys. I am working on my PPL. I was given a fairly high-end David Clark headset, but the noise canceling does not work and I fly so much that I have not been able to go without it for a month in order to send it in to get it fixed. So if I wear ear plugs underneath that would work well? Is there anywhere I could get the noise canceling fixed very quickly?

I don't know what kind of aircraft you guys are flying, but a standard headset without earplugs should be sufficient for your standard training aircraft.

Yes, wearing ear plugs with your headset will help further reduce the noise a little if that's what your looking for. I've done it many times and know many others that do it as well. Nothing wrong with it. Not sure how long it would take (or how much) to fix the ANR on your headset. I've sent my non-ANR David Clark to be fixed once (new mic and cord) and it took about two weeks from the day I shipped it out, to the day I got it back.

Hope that helps,

Cheers!