Wanna Learn to Fly, Am I too big?

B&TPilot said:
So, at risk of opening a big can of worms, I'm wondering about headsets. My instructor keeps "reminding" me I need to get one. He is suggesting starting out with SoftComm C-40-10 Red Barons - they sell them at the club where I take lessons for ~$130. He said I can always upgrade to David Clarks after I get my PPL and then use the Red Barons as a spare or for pax.

What do you guys think? Can I do better in the same price range? Can I do "a lot" better for spending "a little" more (definitions of "a lot" and "a little" left open to interpretation for the time being).

Would the Red Barons be OK to let the occasional pax use? I'm talking probably short day or overnight XC flights once a month tops, all other flying would probably be me solo or with an instructor. Would the answer change if the primary pax was your wife?

IDK, just don't really know a thing about picking a good headset, don't know where to research info (besides here), and don't know where to go to try on different headsets and see and feel whats comfortable. I don't really have a budget in mind, but I don't want to have a top of the line headset and then not be able to afford to go flying either :P
Click to expand...

20 some years later... I still have the original SoftComs I bought. I recommend the gel ear seals, much more comfy.

It's a good choice, you can also buy a used pair or whatever low price pair if you have budget issues because you will need a spare pair (or few) of headsets later. If you can swing more money, ANR is nice, and there are also in ear headsets that have some comfort advantages. I currently have a Zulu, a Sierra, my old Softcoms and two cheapies (I have a 5 seat plane) I also had a Clarity Aloft that I really liked, but it gotten broken during travelling. I decided to get the Zulus because the Bluetooth and they were more comfortable for me than the Bose.

This is where another point of caution comes up, headsets do not all fit the same (though many low end ones do because they are all come from the same manufacturer who puts different names on them.) and everybodies head is not shaped the same. Me, I can't wear David Clarks, they hurt my ears and the top of my head. You look at most DC headsets and people have a lambswool pad on it. The Zulus and Sierras fit me nicely, very comfortable on long trips, rarely fidget with them at all. The Bose rub my ears after a while. Peltor makes good sets as well, actually most the major brands make good equipment. I always recommend people go into a pilot shop with plenty of time to spare and try on headsets for a minimum of an hour or until they begin to hurt. Just grab something to read and sit there with the headsets on, they won't mind.

Buy cheap or buy what fits you best regardless cost. Anything in the middle is not as good of a value.
 
Something else to think about when it comes to headsets. If you wear glasses or sunglasses, make sure to be wearing those when you try out the headsets. There might be some interference that can get uncomfortable after a while. Plus, if you don't get a good seal, ANR tends not to work very well.
 
jesse said:
David Clark has good service. They probably fixed it for free, or next to free.
Click to expand...

Probably. Still, you can have problems with any headset. How big a deal that is kinda depends on the student. As far as I know breaking his Clark cables was one of the reasons that guy I mentioned dropped out of training. He was doing an accelerated rushrush "to checkride in X days" type program and that was just one more straw. Time constraints plus equipment failures = no fun. :sad:

I opine that it makes sense to start with something cheap. If you can use them (hear the instructor, instructor hears you, no hearing damage, 1.5 hour comfortable, etc) you just saved a lot of money. If not, you have a useful for less than the price of one lesson.

I say that as the owner of two headsets, a pair of cheap Softcomm (or maybe s Sigtronics or one of the others... same metal hinged boom special anyway) and a pair of LS Zulus. I use the Zulus by preference.
 
ziege said:
Probably. Still, you can have problems with any headset. How big a deal that is kinda depends on the student. As far as I know breaking his Clark cables was one of the reasons that guy I mentioned dropped out of training. He was doing an accelerated rushrush "to checkride in X days" type program and that was just one more straw. Time constraints plus equipment failures = no fun. :sad:

I opine that it makes sense to start with something cheap. If you can use them (hear the instructor, instructor hears you, no hearing damage, 1.5 hour comfortable, etc) you just saved a lot of money. If not, you have a useful for less than the price of one lesson.

I say that as the owner of two headsets, a pair of cheap Softcomm (or maybe s Sigtronics or one of the others... same metal hinged boom special anyway) and a pair of LS Zulus. I use the Zulus by preference.
Click to expand...
I use a pair of David Clarks that are older than me and have god knows how many hours crop dusting (dad and grandpa used them in the stearman). I've never had a problem - had to clean the plugs once with a scottsbrite pad.
 
ziege said:
I opine that it makes sense to start with something cheap. If you can use them (hear the instructor, instructor hears you, no hearing damage, 1.5 hour comfortable, etc) you just saved a lot of money.
Click to expand...

Not really. I have an $80 paperweight in my bag that hardly ever gets used and I wish I'd have spent that $80 towards something more useful.

I have a pair of Zulus and a pair of Twenty-3G's from Lightspeed, I have the aforementioned "FeatherLite" that I got off eBay for $80 and I had a Pilot Communications headset that I bought early on for about $120. It was "1.5 hour comfortable" I suppose, but it sure as hell wasn't more than that and there were occasions where it was highly uncomfortable in less than 1.5. Between that and having both gel ear seals rupture in my flight bag, the Pilot was retired to the round file.

Between the two cheapies, I basically wasted $200. On the rare occasion that I need a 3rd headset I could simply rent one for a buck from the local FBO, and that would have cost a tiny fraction of what I wasted on the two "cheap" headsets.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
I got the bottom line D.C's off EBAY for something like $90 in like new condition (and the box).
Click to expand...

You have to be verwy, verwy careful there. Most DC headsets on eBay are military surplus which helicopter plugs and impedances. Make sure the model number is current one for an airplane headset.

I'd invest an extra $200 in a Pilot headset to get ANR, but then I was nearly "money no object."
 
mikea said:
I'd invest an extra $200 in a Pilot headset to get ANR, but then I was nearly "money no object."
Click to expand...

After my experience with Pilot headsets, I'll never get another one. They're cheap crap. Besides, the Gulf Coast/Pacific Coast branded ANR headset I linked to earlier is $80 cheaper.
 
jesse said:
I use a pair of David Clarks that are older than me and have god knows how many hours crop dusting (dad and grandpa used them in the stearman). I've never had a problem - had to clean the plugs once with a scottsbrite pad.
Click to expand...

Yep. DC earned their reputation with good reliable no-frills headsets made to a very high standard. That's why the broken plug incident was such a good example of how even "the best" gear can be killed by a beginner mistake.

At the end of the day the question you ask yourself is very simple. Will you bet the price of the cheap headset for the chance of saving the difference in price between it and the expensive set? I.e. between the SoftComm nad LS Zulus, risk $129 for a chance to save $671.

If you bet and "win", you end ahead $671. If you "lose" you end down $129. That's, what, 5-1 odds? Is that a good bet? Maybe. Depends on how likely the cheapies are to satisfy you. That, in turn, depends on a lot of very personal factors. Head shape, personality, the plane you are flying even. I think there is a reasonable chance that a pair of SoftComms can be checked out in a store well enough to decide whether they will be a good bet for a particular person, but they aren't a universal good or bad bet.


In my case, I bet $90 against somewhere around $400 and "lost" ... wound up buying both headsets ... but, because the SoftComms have been functional and reliable, I have gotten a fair amount of use out of them and don't consider it a real loss. The reason I "lost" was 100% personality, specifically wanting to play with ANR and liking fancy tech toys.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
There's two ways of looking at it:

One, you can "save" money by buying a cheap headset now and using it for pax later, or...

Two, you can buy a decent headset now, it'll last you longer, and it'll be something you won't mind giving to pax.

Also, remember that you can't buy back lost hearing later. With that in mind, I'll suggest to you what I suggest every time someone is looking for a budget headset: Go for a reasonably-priced ANR, in particular this one: http://gca.aero/detail/5990/Headsets/GCA/GCA-ANR-II/ It's basically an OEM version of the Lightspeed QFR Solo only with ANR.

Do that, and not only will you do a better job of keeping your hearing, you'll have something that you don't mind giving your wife later on.

If you want to try out a bunch of headsets, ask your CFI to do a cross country flight down to I69 and go to Sporty's. There's probably not a better place to try before you buy, and you're within fairly easy range.
Click to expand...

That's a good deal. That is what my passive LS QFRs were worth when I bought them. I love my Lightspeeds, very comfortable.
 
I figured this would happen :P

Maybe I'll see if my instructor has one of the softcomm red barons available for me to try during my lesson tomorrow, and then decide if they would work for me or not, and if they'd be an acceptable spare / PAX set if I upgrade later on.
 
B&TPilot said:
By the way guys already down 10lbs since my introductory lesson 3 weeks ago we'll see how much a difference it makes on the seat belt tomorrow ;)
Click to expand...

Excellent that is a gallon and 1/2 of fuel!

As for the headsets, well you will get as may opinions about them as a highwing low wing debate. My opinion is get what fits and is comfortable and get the most comfortable ones you can afford.
 
B&TPilot said:
I figured this would happen :P

Maybe I'll see if my instructor has one of the softcomm red barons available for me to try during my lesson tomorrow, and then decide if they would work for me or not, and if they'd be an acceptable spare / PAX set if I upgrade later on.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Buy the Red Barons now, they'll serve you fine. Then when you pass your checkride you buy a pair of ANRs as a congratulatory gift and the timing is perfect because now that you can take passengers, you have a head set for them.
 
So I didn't get to try out the red barons, but it turns out I've been borrowing my instructor's softcomm C-45's "The Prince". Didn't bother asking what I've been wearing until this past weekend. The only differences I can see in the spec sheet between those and the C-40-10 "Red Baron" is that the red baron has a -23dB rating while the Prince has a -22dB rating, and that the Red Baron is about 1.5oz heavier. Oh the red baron is also $20 more expensive, but I think since I've been ok with the headset I've been borrowing, the red barons will work just fine.

In other news, lessons are still going well. I had my lesson last saturday. We reviewed stalls, did steep turns, and introduced emergency off-airport field landing procedures. Then we went back to the airport where I started working on landings - we did 3 touch and goes before coming back in for a full stop landing. I wasn't able to complete a successful landing entirely unassisted yet, but my instructor is very happy with my progress so far compared to where he expects students with only 3.7hrs usually are, and he told me if I continue to work and improve at about the same rate I may be ready to solo by the end of june! guess I better get a move on getting that medical.
 
Sounds like you're moving along well B&T. Congratulations on the training success AND the weight loss. Definitely a win/win in life.

Keep it up and keep us posted.
Doc
 
Just a quick update - got my class 3 medical and student pilot certificate today. :rockon:

Went real smooth, no issues whatsoever.

I'm up to 9.3 hours in the airplane so far. Next lesson on monday evening should put me over 10. Instructor's been telling me I'm almost ready to solo. I think my landings still need work. Got my medical out of the way, need to do my pre-solo written exam for the 141 program. Few more lessons til I solo I think.

Only 3 more weeks of the ground school course. 2 content classes, then a practice exam day. If all is going well by then, I should be taking my written exam the first week of august.

Oh, and I'm down 23lbs since I took my first lesson in May. :D
 
B&TPilot said:
Just a quick update - got my class 3 medical and student pilot certificate today. :rockon:

Went real smooth, no issues whatsoever.

I'm up to 9.3 hours in the airplane so far. Next lesson on monday evening should put me over 10. Instructor's been telling me I'm almost ready to solo. I think my landings still need work. Got my medical out of the way, need to do my pre-solo written exam for the 141 program. Few more lessons til I solo I think.

Only 3 more weeks of the ground school course. 2 content classes, then a practice exam day. If all is going well by then, I should be taking my written exam the first week of august.

Oh, and I'm down 23lbs since I took my first lesson in May. :D
Click to expand...


OUTSTANDING! It sounds like flying is working well for you on several fronts.

Keep us posted!

Doc
 
7/24/11 - first solo :D 2 touch and goes and a full stop. 13.8 hours in the logbook at the end of the day. Pretty excited, wasn't nearly as nervous as I thought I was going to be. Its great feeling to have done it though. Just wanted to let you guys know.
 
Congrats!!!! It is a day you will remember forever!
 
B&TPilot said:
Just a quick update - got my class 3 medical and student pilot certificate today. :rockon:

Went real smooth, no issues whatsoever.

I'm up to 9.3 hours in the airplane so far. Next lesson on monday evening should put me over 10. Instructor's been telling me I'm almost ready to solo. I think my landings still need work. Got my medical out of the way, need to do my pre-solo written exam for the 141 program. Few more lessons til I solo I think.

Only 3 more weeks of the ground school course. 2 content classes, then a practice exam day. If all is going well by then, I should be taking my written exam the first week of august.

Oh, and I'm down 23lbs since I took my first lesson in May. :D
Click to expand...


Fantastic, glad to hear it! Keep us posted!
 
B&TPilot said:
7/24/11 - first solo :D 2 touch and goes and a full stop. 13.8 hours in the logbook at the end of the day. Pretty excited, wasn't nearly as nervous as I thought I was going to be. Its great feeling to have done it though. Just wanted to let you guys know.
Click to expand...

Fabulous! That's about exactly how many hours it took me to solo the first time, but that was 20 years ago. I read a recent thread somewhere that discussed time to solo typically being much longer today than it was back then. If I read the info in that thread correctly, in todays flying world, you solo'd very quickly.

Keep it up and keep us posted!
Doc
 
Great News ! What did you end up training in ?
 
As I read this thread (poet and didn't know it) I identified with everything B&TPilot is talking about. I'm a big guy as we'll (6', 350#) and have 25 hrs between PA-28-161 and 181, Cessna 172 and even a Robinson R-22, which was a long time ago. I too struggle with weight and have my whole life. I've let it and finances keep me from flying which is my best motivator for self improvement. I think my take away is that you don't necessarily have to wait. You can make progress on 2 fronts; lose weight and get flight time. I'm curious to know how B&TPILOT is progressing. I will post my story in another thread. Fly safe!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top