Helicopter Helmets for open frame gyro.

[birdy]

Chooky is right with the hearing loss as I can vouch for thatWut??People think im nuts wen i tell um i can hear the bats sonar of a nite.And yes, if im opperaten anythn louder than a regular fart, i ware plugs.

[chook]

Righto Chook I was doing some thinking while rolling silage with the loader last night. Is it possible that the Peltor earcups with the dual shell are relaying outside noises to me if the speaker is touching the plastic cup and speaker pressed against my ear, like the tin cans and string principle? I remember that when I put them in there was alot less room in there than with the Bilsom Viking V3 although they were physically bigger on the outside. Its like an exhaust that drones in your car, you think you can put up with it until you can"t anymore.A)Matt, yes. You want as much isolation as you can get between the outside of the helmet and your ears.Is noise cancelling is in the microphone, ANR is a second speaker to cancel out sound waves?A)The ANR (active noise reduction) is purely for your hearing. You are correct in that the principle relies on cancelling the noise within the ear cup. Any noise or static that the radio receives will still be heard. The microphone is another story. We have some tricks to reduce the wind noise but again the Flycom excel at this by using their rubber "beard" which encloses the microphone and your mouth within a small area. The downside is on a hot day it can get uncomfortable. Everything in aviation is a compromise.Can you have an open face helmet without the wind/engine noises transmitting over the radio? Can a windshield around the front part of the mic be used?A)See above.Intercoms? Ideas? I would like to use VHF ( I have icom A6 ) and UHF too. Music input would be nice but not a necessity.A)Hmmm- We have a station owner who also requires the VHF/UHF combination and for him I used a Micro avionics system. It takes a bit of setting up, is not cheap and you need separate PTT switches for each radio. The other issue here is that you also require the Micro avionics helmet as part of the solution. I live in Augusta. Found your phone number in Tony"s radio topic. Do you mind if I ring you?A)No I don"t mind. I am home tonight.Regards....Chook.

[Brian]

Chooky is right with the hearing loss as I can vouch for that. You will not hear a lot of sounds like your family members or your mates, small children, or a noise in your gyro that is telling you it needs attention now !!!! So look after the hearing with the best protection you can and remember you are looking at $10,000 plus to try to get some hearing technology help each time you have to replace the previously procured devices. And the rebates from the medical insurances is a joke not even a tenth of the cost. I have had mine for 7 years and need replacements as they are not bringing the sounds to my hearing ability now. So I can be referred to the deaf old grumpy bugger now. : ;DThese hearing devices can not be used in your ear muffs or under any hat that sound bounces off as you get those squeals in the ears that drive you nuts.So if you have to pay $2000.00 for a top skidlid with the best hearing protection it is cheaper in the long run. Cheers Des GarvinG"day there Des, you are very correct about looking after your hearing & today there are a number of ways to have excellent communications with excellent protection ....hearing that is

[WEST OZ FLYER]

Righto Chook I was doing some thinking while rolling silage with the loader last night. Is it possible that the Peltor earcups with the dual shell are relaying outside noises to me if the speaker is touching the plastic cup and speaker pressed against my ear, like the tin cans and string principle? I remember that when I put them in there was alot less room in there than with the Bilsom Viking V3 although they were physically bigger on the outside. Its like an exhaust that drones in your car, you think you can put up with it until you can"t anymore.My headaches are caused by noise not pressure. I have some Uvex earmuffs that I use and they will give me pressure headaches after 5-6 hrs, but man are they quiet.Is noise cancelling is in the microphone, ANR is a second speaker to cancel out sound waves?Can you have an open face helmet without the wind/engine noises transmitting over the radio? Can a windshield around the front part of the mic be used?Intercoms? Ideas? I would like to use VHF ( I have icom A6 ) and UHF too. Music input would be nice but not a necessity.I live in Augusta. Found your phone number in Tony"s radio topic. Do you mind if I ring you?Birdy - some of the new helmets are carbonfibre so they are a lot stronger for that purpose

[tonydenton]

ok front and rear, any other requests while I"m dreaming than ????

[RossM]

1st design change would be an easier rear clip.

[Des Garvin]

Chooky is right with the hearing loss as I can vouch for that. You will not hear a lot of sounds like your family members or your mates, small children, or a noise in your gyro that is telling you it needs attention now !!!! So look after the hearing with the best protection you can and remember you are looking at $10,000 plus to try to get some hearing technology help each time you have to replace the previously procured devices. And the rebates from the medical insurances is a joke not even a tenth of the cost. I have had mine for 7 years and need replacements as they are not bringing the sounds to my hearing ability now. So I can be referred to the deaf old grumpy bugger now. : ;DThese hearing devices can not be used in your ear muffs or under any hat that sound bounces off as you get those squeals in the ears that drive you nuts.So if you have to pay $2000.00 for a top skidlid with the best hearing protection it is cheaper in the long run. Cheers Des Garvin

[tonydenton]

blue tooth and "3 g" , it makes me wonder where they get the names from sometimes. I always wonder whose job it is and how much some one gets paid to sit and come up with that stuff.

[chook]

Muz you are not reading again.Those motor bikes are running under strict Australian noise laws.Their systems will not run or tolerate the 90decibels of noise that our gyros generate 400 mm behind the helmet.Mind you I have had sheila passengers that generate almost that amount of noise as pillions.The simple engineering the bike intercoms require is the wind noise reduction and that can be done with careful selection of the microphone frequency response and microphone mounting within the helmet.Like it or not your hearing will degrade with age as well as the mis treatment you give it by exposing it to flying noisy machines, shooting, driving machinery or going to rock concerts.......if you don"t believe me just go and get your hearing tested. The human brain has an amazing ability to dismiss the obvious health problems as a survival mechanism.Most of the damage that you do to your hearing is irreversible.Regards....Chook.

[MadMuz]

Back in Canberra some of my shooting mates were having their well earned midlife crisisis and bought those offroad touring bikes.... they had bike to bike and bike to pillion radios in their helmets... the helmets were the full face, but the whole face section could open up, chin part and all. They had the bit that closed off under your chin a bit, which kept the wind out... they had no trouble with mics, hearing the speakers inside the helmet or wind noise..... nearly every big touring bike you see on the road has intercom or radio, bike to bike..... would be interesting to see how they work if the bike (or a gyro) doesn"t have a windshield of some description?

[birdy]

Blue tooth !!!!!Bloodyell, you gota pull it mate, blood poisoning is next if you dont.Just make sure your face down wen you yank it out, that black blood tasts like sh!t and you could choke onit.

[tonydenton]

hello matt and g"day again chook, chook is right that , the anr how ever they do it is clever. I can just sit there playing with the switch.

[birdy]

My first headset i made meself, couldnt be cheaper and worked a treat (till i used it asa hammer ina hissy fit)Just gutted the handpice, stuck the mic on the chin part of me old full face scooter skidlid with a blob of sillycoon, extended the PTT wires to a switch on the stick, sillycooned a small speaker in the lid n bingo, a workable headset.Seen a few people wast alota good drinkn coin on crap that didnt work.

[chook]

Matthew we have had good results with the Flycom kit.Ok the best that the current noise cancelling technology can do is remove about 60 decibels (dB) of noise (this is both a complex and subjective figure). Anything over that and they just can"t cope and given that the average EA81 (and some Rotax"s) are putting out around the 90dB noise level 400mm behind your helmet it is a big ask.However the improvement is substantial (Ask Tony Denton). So we need to use the helmet and earmuffs to cancel the remaining 30dB.As with all of these installations I really need to have a look at your specific problems and then formulate a solution around efficiency and economics.Are your headaches caused by the earmuff pressure on the side of your head or the actual noise being produced by your engine?of course another option is to use the ear bud method where you get inserts specifically fitted to your ears. I have not personally used these but 2 of the WA guys have them and swear by them. I have used the Bose in ear units and was impressed but I have never connected them into a gyro comms system nor flown a gyro with them. So you do have a lot of choice.Matt where in WA are you located?Regards.......Chook.

[WEST OZ FLYER]

Birdy - I thought that might be the case.Mike - My helmet is similar to yours but is at least 200 years older . It didn"t make any difference if the intercom was on or off for the noise.MadMuz - Did you have any problems with wind drying your eyes out or making them water? This might be of interest to you for your motorbike helmet http://www.quietridemuffs.com/ At least motorcycle helmets have decent ventilation.Chook - I have read that topic several times, you know your stuff. I put the Peltor ear cups on before you guys started this topic because I thought they were the best and you have confirmed it for me. Does ANR actually work in open frame gyros? I have used it in plank wings and the work great but if you take the headset off it is still quieter than my gyro with helmets on. I am sure that my intercom doesn"t have noise cancelling but I am no electronics engineer. I reckon Noah used these helmets to hear to the co-pilot on the ark over the animal noises ;D They are that old. My thought was to get a used helmet off the internet (about $100-150) do a refurb and put my electronics in it as they work ok, just the background noises are loud. ( even with the intercom turned off )What are your thoughts on good systems? My original idea based on Adrian"s advice was to buy Flycom stuff. Anything better out there? I would prefer a full brain bucket without cut outs for the ear defenders. Can motorcycle helmets be properly adapted for gyro use with ear defenders?Can you use a large mic muff to eliminate wind noise rather than a full visor?