Do you remember hand held mike?

I’ve never been hand held in my life, how dare you insinuate such things?
Regards
Mike

I learnt with a handheld in 1992 and immediately bought myself a splitter box, so I could plug two headsets into the one socket.

I took this box out to the U.S. and, whilst at the check-in desk in London, during the standard “Have-you-packed-your-own-suitcase” inquisition, I was asked if I was carrying anything that looked like a bömb.

As the splitter box is small with batteries and wires, I replied “yes”. That was fun.

We had Boom Mikes on our Mk4 Bonedomes, with an interrupter switch clipped to the flying jacket. You could really make the pilots jump if you stuck your head out of the door with the mike switched on! :diablo:

I hated using the throat mike though, (for wet & cold conditions, as the condensation on the boom mike would freeze) it made you sound like you were under water, I couldn’t understand what I was saying let alone anyone else (nothing’s changed there then….)

When I enjoyed being chaufered around in Her Majesty’s finest piston powered aerial carriages, bone-domes and mask mikes were the order of the day. Through necessity. Most of the older GA stuff I fly has a hand mike socket, the newer stuff doesn’t. However, during a recent comms problem, the hand mike saved the day. Still a useful piece of redundency. Question: how many people know where the hand mike socket is in the aircraft they fly (if fitted)? Thinks “tomorrow, all those preflights are going to take 20 minutes longer while people try and find that darned hand mike socket”.

Early ’80s?

In 1976 I was a student pilot flying Grumman-American Trainers and decided to try a headset (no boom mike – just the earphones) to see if it would help hear the radio.

Only did it once. The volume of engine noise may have been reduced but the behind-the-back snickering was deafening.

However, a few short years later my father bought an Ercoupe, installed an intercom, and insisted everyone use a headset. By then it seems to have been becoming the norm. I suspect what drove the change was the issue of cockpit noise in light aircraft, on which topic a number of articles appeared in aviation magazines back then.

The club I fly with now has intercoms, comm panels and PTT switches installed in all its aircraft. Incidentally, though, they all still have fully functional cockpit speakers and hand microphones as well.

Just one of the many anachronisms and ergonomic disasters you find in those clapped out things which flying schools charge a fortune for and people still seem happy to pay through their nose to become owners of

Could it be that to a certain extent they have a captive audience and students don’t have much choice (ie if you want to learn to fly, you have to use the machines on offer)?

Hand-held microphones? Just one of the many anachronisms and ergonomic disasters you find in those clapped out things which flying schools charge a fortune for and people still seem happy to pay through their nose to become owners of. They fit right in with the missing inertia-reel safety belts and multi-lever power controls…

I suppose it begs the question; Why do people and flying clubs still buy overpriced, out of date spam cans? What are their real alternatives?

Back in the 70s, when I used to scrounge free pleasure flights, the pilots in the 206 and 170 always used the hand held mike and used to bellow out the points of gepgraphical interest to the passengers above the din of the engine. There was one pilot however who always wore a headset, I believe so that he didn’t have to talk to the passengers!

I find this a most interesting thread as most commercial pilots are desperate to ditch headsets and use hand mikes! My company has an SOP that we have to wear headsets below FL200 so as soon as we are above that we go straight to hand mikes and speakers regardless of whether we are on VHF, HF, Satcom or interphone. Fortunately our cockpit is quiet enough to let us do so.

Hand-held microphones? Just one of the many anachronisms and ergonomic disasters you find in those clapped out things which flying schools charge a fortune for and people still seem happy to pay through their nose to become owners of. They fit right in with the missing inertia-reel safety belts and multi-lever power controls…

Sounds fishy to me!

I must have had better herring then… 😀

It was a crumby system, and in some aircraft, next to useless.

I recall an accident report (fatal) about a low hours PPL who became lost as darkness fell, and the D+D controller who attempted to help him observed that the pilot did not seem to understand his instructions. A fellow pilot, familiar with the accident aircraft, was pretty certain that infact the instructions were virtually inaudible.

I don’t know how you could hear over the din of the engine. In my mind there is no way I could communicate effectively without my headset and boom.

I was one of those odd types that when solo preferred to use the mike than a headset on the 150/172s that I was flying (86-89). I felt a bit freer and more in touch with the a/c, and more comfortable!

Having done a stint on egg beaters since, and always being accused of being ‘mutt & Jeff’, I would guess that I will need a headset with the volume right up when I re-start later this year 😀

Quite a few of the aircraft at my flying club have hand-held mikes (mics?). I think Piper still throw one in with new aircraft even these days. I’ve never tried using one though, I never leave home without 3 headsets 🙂