I fly with a standard Bose X.

I borrowed a buddy's QC3/UFM setup the other day and was unimpressed. In fact, it drove me nuts. It didn't reduce noise as well, the mic didn't stay in place, and was not as well built as my X.

Still a good headset, you just gotta decide if it's worth saving the money to you.

 

I think the uflymike setup is more for jet and not noisy turboprop. I tried it on a metroliner and it didn't cut the noise that much.

 

I actually asked the deputy chief instructor for Regional Aircraft at Bombardier about this once... According to him the button does work, but ONLY on the ground... so yes, while you are weight off wheels the button isn't worth the plastic its made out of, however once you are on the ground it will erase your conversation. TurboFan is correct about the recoverability of the recording... the Magnetic tape makes it nearly impossible to recover.

 

I was wondering how the "on ear" QC3 worked vs the "over ear" QC2. Not so good I guess. After using an ear piece like the kind you see on the guy taking your order at McD's for 9 years, the QC2 is great for us!

 

Can't answer this with 100% certainty, but on a 747 flight recently, one crew member was using the UFM w/ the QC2 and earbud, the other the QC3 with the hand mic (legal in a 747-200). The guy with the QC2 had the volume set 1/4 of the way up on Com. 1, the guy with the QC3 had the volume set 5/8 of the way up (more than 1/2, less than 3/4).

Now, of course I don't know if one guy liked his volume louder than another, if their ability to hear was the same, or if it was impacted at all by the way a 74 classic crew communicates - no hot mic, so you usually have to take one ear off so you can talk to the other pilot and engineer. Incidentally, the pilot with the QC2 did not take an ear off, but seemed to be able to hear the other crew members speaking without trouble. The guy with the QC3 took an ear 1/2 way off.

To me, it seemed the QC2 was quiet enough to suppress most of the flightdeck noise, allowing him to hear a slightly raised voice from the other pilot or the engineer.

I once tried both the QC2 and the Bose X in the PHL airport's Bose store, back to back for comparison, and the Bose X was a touch quieter (5-10%, if I had to put a # to it). Not sure if that's better passive suppression or amped up active suppression - or maybe a bit of both.

I don't think using the QC3 is an option for any regional or corporate guys (this is the regionals forum with a corporate guy posting, right?). The requirement for a boom mic is part of the regs for aircraft certified after a certain date (I'm guessing early 80's). So, unless you fly round dials (no glass at all), you likely can't use the QC3 unless you rigged it up somehow with a TSO'd headset with a boom mic and just wore the QC3 on top of it. So, if you're a 72, 73 (not the NG), 74, L-10, Diesel 8, 9, or 10 driver, than you're fine with the QC3, b/c you're not required to use a boom mic, and can use the hand mic.

 

Before I was aware of the UFM adapter I went to the Bose store to buy a pair of QC2's. They had a listening booth which would play all kinds of background noises so you could hear how well the noise canceling worked. Although I went in intending to by the QC2's I left with the QC3's as I felt they had superior performance. I also switched my QC3's with a friends QC2's on a flight once and both of us agreed that the QC3's performed better. I believe the reason for this is although they both have the same noise cancelation chipset in them, the QC3's memory foam seals the ear canal by filling the outer canals with foam whereas the QC2's attempt to seal on the head can be degraded by things like hair.

 

This QC2 might be good for those of you wearing it, but for the guy sitting next to you it SUCKS.

I hate it when I get a captain that has this headset. The mic picks up sooo much ambient noise compared to a real headset. After a 4 day trip it gets really annoying. Don't forget to take into consideration the people on the other end of the mic. I would much rather my co-pilot no wear these non aviation headsets for this reason.

 

Yeah...it's kinda like someone rubbing on an inflated balloon in your ear for the whole trip. Go for the gold and get the X! If you can't afford it buy a $150 DC and save for it!

 

I've talked to several pilots who used the Bose X and every one of them said they had to keep one ear cup off or they couldn't hear the other guy. In fact I saw two different guys use the X when jumpseating and sure enough they both kept the right cup off (both were FOs and first ride was in a B757 and the second in a 747 classic). Sort of defeats the whole purpose of protecting your hearing if you have to take the cup of...

When I still used my QC2 Uflymike combo I could keep both ear cups on and heard the other guy just fine. I never heard any complaints about any extra noise generated by my headset either but it looks like you had a different experience...

 

Unless I am talking with the other pilot, I leave my intercom hotmike off. I'm sure the other person doesn't want to hear me breathe, sneeze, etc. It's just common courtesy. That takes care of the issue of mic noise.