Purchasing equipment
 

I am a student pilot currently getting my certificates required to eventually fly the majors, which is my goal. I am looking for advice on two different items; headsets and iPads.

As for the headsets, I am looking for a headset that doesn't cancel out outside noise necessarily. And as for the iPad I am looking for the "perfect" size. Thanks in advance and take care. David.

In all honesty, I fly with a lot of half-deaf pilots. They get that way over many years, but the noise in piston prop planes early in their careers had to have had a big impact. I'd go with ANR headsets from day one.

The regular ipad the airline gave me works fine. Bear in mind that an ipad won't be a primary tool in general aviation training, and airlines will give you one loaded with their software when the time comes.

I'm one of those half deaf pilots. All but about 50 hours was with David Clark 13.4 with gel seals. If you choose to not use noise cancelling cans, get the maximum passive noise protection, use gel seals (better fit and lower noise), and wear earplugs in addition.

And ALWAYS wear hearing protection on the ramp. And fingers don't count.

iPad mini, with the cell phone modem built in (it has an internal GPS, you don’t have to activate the cell phone part) and if you have $1000 - Bose, Lightspeed, David Clark. With the Bose and probably the others, you can still hear the engine noise and when you get slow, you can hear the wind noise on the airframe. (My 182 makes a bit of a whistling sound near landing speed with the flaps down)
And yes, protect your hearing!!

I'm more than half-deaf.

ANR improves communication and makes it clearer and easier to hear.

It doesn't necessarily protect your hearing.

I have a hard time hearing radio traffic on a headset without ANR any more.