Headset Financing
 

Anyone heard of or used this company to finance their headset?

https://www.showcaseaviation.com/

Why don't you get a zero APR card?

Understanding that everyone is in a different financial position, I would try to avoid financing at all costs, especially when it is at 19.9%. You could get a credit card with a low introductory rate well below that. Or do it the old fashioned way and save for it and pay cash.

What Ohlsan said. I would add to that by saying if you can't afford the headset you are buying, and have to finance it, you are not buying the correct headset. There are good ones out there for less than $300. And I fly with people who are still using them 5 and 10 years later.

All an expensive headset does for you is reduces the money left in your wallet.

Let's see, retail pricing and 20% financing charge by Swedish payment gateway provider with a 2 star customer service rating. What's not to love? All this and a company tagline of: "Your absolute BEST supplier of Pilot Supplies on the planet" GMAFB

PayPal offers free financing. They give you 6 months 0% to pay it off.

Assuming you're in a jet, the Telex 750 is the gold standard. These are available used off eBay for under $50. Use with foam or re-usable rubber (my recommendation) earplugs such as these

https://www.amazon.com/Howard-Leight...ight+ear+plugs

offer exceptional noise attenuation for a bargain basement cost.

Zero need to finance a headset.

Your company should provide one for you in the cockpit. At least envoy does.

The Amazon Card, when I bought mine, offered 0% APR for 18 months. Not a bad deal at all.

I've never gotten sick more in my life than when I used company provided headsets my first two years. And yes I used sanitation wipes.

I never understood using company headsets for 3 reasons. First is, as you point out, they are bacteria and virus infested. Puss sponges. And not just the biological zoo from the last pilot who used it, but also his "girl friend's" collection.

Second is that every profession that is worth anything puts a high value on good tools. From mechanics to dentists. But not pilots, who will use any old crap headset and then complain about how hard it is to understand the controllers.

Third is that it does not take a PhD in Statistics to determine that old pilots can not hear very well. And that is not because of the hotel air-conditioning. This comes back to good tools, which not only help you do your job well but also reduce the risk of physical damage.

Rant over. Until I go back to work and have to keep telling the other guy what ATC said.

Well, come to envoy and buy some bose with the sign in bonus.

This place is so disfuctional. Answer his f'ing question and stop preaching how he runs his life.

Not really, most pilots prefer to bring their own rather than share cooties. Few airlines provide headphones for pilot routine use. There's a spare for jump seater use but it typically does not have a mic.

I financed my Bose A20's back when Bose used to give 0% financing for 1 year. Best investment in my career so far.

It is a little ridiculous to finance a headset, but not nearly as bad as the people in the other thread advocating for huge loans on flight training so they can come to the regionals.

Telex 850's. Can't go wrong, very lightweight and affordable and provides good noise reduction and protection. Can't go wrong in my opinion. It does the exact same thing a 1500 set does for you.
Besides, who needs Bluetooth in a friggin' plane.......smh

Please don't make this very poor financial decision. Buy a cheap used headset if you can't afford one. The DC 13.4 is an old standard and affordable new. Even cheaper, the Telex Echelon - $190 new and actually not too bad.

Or selling a pitch to come to your airline. Agreed.

Seriously...it's a headset.....

How else should people pay for flight training? Mom and dad? Military? Or just some how get $60,000 to pay for it? Even working multiple jobs will take years to save up that kind of money....

Why do people do this on forums anyways? Who cares...

Can you afford the headset in the window?

I've used the 850's on our jumpseats often. Personally I don't like it. It's much more expensive then the 750, has a lot more to break (ie fix $$), and provides very little noise attenuation in comparison to earplugs. The ANR of headsets typically filters our the low end freq noise, but the high freq "white noise" of the wind hitting the windshield cannot be attenuated. This is what causes our high freq hearing loss. Earplugs work the best for filtering out that noise, as there is very little low freq noise to attenuate on a jet. Prop, yes, but then you'd be better served with a Bose or Lightspeed.

Dear heavens. Just go on eBay and snag a decent used ANR headset for a couple hundred....

Or do what I did back in 2011. Pick the correct national chipper in the bracket. This year is shaping up just like when the Huskies and Kemba pulled it off. Best purchase I ever made. (Had old Bose prior) Protect your hearing at all costs. a grand is small spuds when you're taking about potential lifetime damage to your hearing.

On guard!
 

This is an AD. Nice job OP.

How do they compare to the Bose A20?

Aw come on man, ya got to build your immune system one way or another :p

Airline pilot "financing" a headset, priceless! So much for a new Caddy every year, house, vacation house, boat, plane and worries about how to invest the spare cash.....

Tax writeoff, and an investment that you will use for a long time. I have the David Clarke Pro X's. I like having bluetooth. Finance? Put it on a credit card and pay it off asap.

I just use the company one in cockpit and bough me a nice watch.

Thats just me.

I don't see how a newhire will deduct more than the standard deduction so it's not going to do you any better to have it as a tax writeoff. While I am not a cpa my understanding is that if you spend 1000 and your in the 15% tax bracket even if you deduct it you'll only reduce your taxes by 150$ so it's at best a 850 dollar tool you can't afford

That is outside my realm of knowledge. At the regional level, I always used the ships headsets. The equipment I fly now is a bit louder, and harder to understand all the different accents. Thats a good point about first year FO's. I was viewing the question from my perspective.

Own a home? Have kids? It's not that hard to get past the standard deduction.

Are you serious? Being a new hire, you can rake in deductions. Aside from deducting the difference in paid per diem and locality or standard, there are tons of deductions that apply when starting a new job. Did you move? Did you go to conferences? Did you pay for an interview hotel? Did you buy any other supplies (uniforms, supplies, etc). Was your training accomplished outside of your assigned domicile? You can deduct a percentage of your cell phone and internet. It isn't JUST a headset.

Pretty bad advice, especially for those not familiar with tax laws.

Yes, you can deduct per diem difference. But without a mortgage, it is unlikely that a married person will ever beat the $12,600 standard. Heck, even WITH a mortgage in July, I could not itemize this year. That was with moving expenses, per diem difference, and uniforms.

Your training location IS your assigned domicile, since you don't go to your base until IOE; not sure where you are going with that one.

Cell phone and internet? That's a slippery slope. One that I personally would never try to stay upright on. One would have to be able to justify the percentages claimed for work, and even at that, a cell phone and a computer (internet) technically are not required. Caveat emptor. You could get away with it for years, until the audit. Again, for me, not worth the $27 I would save on my taxes doing it the non-questionable way.

This applies to 99% of tax advice (especially from other pilots).

My CPA disagrees with some of the things you are saying. Internet isn't REQUIRED, but if I choose to bid on my computer and use my internet, it is a qualified business expense. If I choose to pick up flying out or domicile, all expenses to include parking and hotels are tax deductible. Just because the company doesn't mandate it doesn't mean it isn't a business expense.

As far as your comment regarding training, yes you are partially correct. If you show up to indoc in Denver or Salt Lake or Atlanta and they ship you to Cincy or St Louis or France to do systems and sims because very few regionals own their sims, that is a temporary assignment and M&IE expenses are tax deductible.

The trouble with the phone and internet thing is that they are business expenses. Do you own your business? Most here do not. So you need to dig a little deeper and follow the travel expense rules. Not saying you can't justify it well, and your CPA seems to think it can be done. For me, I don't want to try and claim the percentage I actually use my phone or internet for work, A) because said percentage is so darn low, and 2) it's not a required part of my personal business. At the end of the day, even if I were to be able to justify $100 worth of use per year (I could not), that would garner me about $9 back on my tax return. I could pick one turn and make a lot more than that, and never have to worry about the IRS placing the burden of proof on my shoulders.

Remember, your CPA doesn't have to pay the IRS if he/she gives you incorrect advice.

If you travel to your home base, and then you travel to your "out of base" location to begin work, then yes, you can claim that as additional travel (you can even deduct mileage driven in that case). However, I have never seen a situation where I had to do that where the company didn't pick up the expense. Your situation may be different. (You cannot deduct expenses incurred for travel from your home of record to your home base.)

Instead of reading IRS PUB 334, written for business owners, take a look at 463, travel. Again, one can claim anything they want. And often get away with doing things wrong due to the vast amount of filings every year since only a small percentage ever get audited. But for me, it's not worth the risk for the few extra duckies per year.

I'm required by the company to have my tablet charged ad updated prior to reporting for duty. I'm also required to perform company assigned ecampus learning that I cannot do on company time, since I don't have time while being on duty. Thus, I am by proxy required to have a data connection, which I use both the house internet and my cellular data.

You can try to make that claim, and you may well get away with it. However, the company provides you internet with which to update your EFB, just as they provided your Jepps paper updates in your admin office.

As for LMS, I always do mine at work, since I am being paid to do so. (Don't have time at work? Give me a break. Our days are FULL of wasted time.) Why would one ever do it at home, unless they are really bored, and APC is down? :)

Hey, do what your conscience dictates. Like I said, it's not worth it to me, for the handful of dollars I might get back on my tax return. What are you going to do next, claim a percentage of your electric bill for charging your phone and EFB?

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/2...post12163.html