wrote:
I am a student pilot, and am about to buy a headset. I am thinking about
probably getting a David Clark, they seem to be pretty good quality,
however, i don't want to spend more on my headset than on my training.
Anyone have any suggestions as to good brands that are not outrageoulsy
expensive. Thanks



Hi there,
Welcome to flying - hope you stick around for a while :-) If you
are committed to learning to fly, then I see no reason to go for a stop
gap headset. I find flying with passive headsets to be infinitely more
fatiguing, and downright uncomfortable compared to my ANR headset. It's
easy to trivialize in the store, because the headsets don't seem all
that different in a quiet environment for a short period of time. The
quality and comfort of a headset can only be measured after getting a
good workout flying for several hours a day.

My advice is to bite the bullet and get at least an entry level ANR
headset. I have had very good luck with my Pilot Avionics PA17-71T's,
and it cost $317 dollars. Given what equivalent and lesser headsets go
for, I still feel like I got a bargain.

You can read what I wrote about it a while ago he
http://makeashorterlink.com/?R24B21C79
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=av...att.net&rnum=1


Different people will have different experiences with headsets based on
how well a particular model will fit their head. This is the biggest
variable. Having said that, most people understand why "David Clamps"
have been derided as such... I feel bad for my passengers when they use
my old H10-13.4's for longer than an hour at a time. They have a
reputation for being very reliable, but their clamping force (necessary
for effective passive noise attenuation) spawn pounding headaches. YMMV

Good luck!

-Aviv Hod