Kevin Garrison plugs in and gets an earful…of silence.
Gather round, boys and girls, and let me tell you of a time, long ago, when nobody used headsets while flying.
It was an awful era, full of static-ridden, deafening speakers. No pilot could hear what was going on. Microphones in those days, dangling by frayed wires, were lost in the complexity of ancient instrument panels. Some mics were stowed near the elevator trim wheel. Others were to be found hiding on window latches or hanging from their plug-in points.
Then, in the year 1975, a company founded in 1935 by David Clark that was appropriately named the David Clark Co., began the manufacture of its soon-to-be-famous, green-cupped headsets that combined two ear-adjacent speakers near a microphone that was held captive by a flexible boom.
These David Clark headsets were all the rage in the disco years, and their renown carries on today through the pride of David Clark’s ear- and mind-saving fleet of headsets, the DC ONE-X.
A gift to my ears
My little box full of airborne quiet, solace, and joy arrived the other day, and I could not wait to take it out to the airport so it could meet my ancient airplane and begin its life of service, entertainment, and safety enhancement. I also could not wait for it to meet my ears.
My ears, you see, are not only aged but have been buffeted by aviation’s capricious and sometimes offensive rackets for decades upon decades.
Being tempest-tossed by the loud whistle of Boeing 727 cockpits; beset by the loud-shouting voices of co-pilots, flight engineers, and flight attendants; and numbed by months and years of working around jets on the ramp while wearing no hearing protection took a toll. My ears now strain, sometimes in vain, to hear the melodic voices of ATC controllers and intercom-connected fellow aviators.
My fervent hope was that this beautiful noise-canceling and Bluetooth-enabled David Clark headset would change my life and bring me the quiet existence of flying I craved along with the clear communication that working with ATC requires.
I installed the two included AA batteries into the unit and plugged my new DC ONE-X into the appropriate audio jacks. Then, I started my aircraft’s noisy engine and pushed the “on” switch on my new headset.
Dead quiet.
Pure bliss!
The noise-canceling feature that the David Clark Co. calls “Hybrid ENC” made the world go away and turned that noisy cockpit into a serene oasis
of calm, but with situationally-aware professionalism.
Led to the runway by the unruffled and melodic voice of the ground controller and then assisted by the even more relaxed voice of the tower person, and shortly after, by departure control, I peacefully aviated my way out of Class C airspace and was released by ATC on my own recognizance.
Once squawking VFR and away from the verbal intrusions of the controllers, I pushed the Bluetooth button on the headset controller and mated it with my iPhone, rendering the entire system ready to play music. How long would I be able to listen to Steely Dan and Jim Croce while slipping surlies without having to change batteries? Up to 50 hours, according to the David Clark Co. I have faith the 50-hour figure is accurate.
David Clark Co.
My faith is based on the long history of the David Clark Co. Its engineering skills and attention to detail go all the way back to World War II when the company developed and produced the first G-suits for our military in 1943. The G-suits not only prevented pilots from passing out during high g maneuvers but also doubled their kill rate against their non-G-suited enemies.
Later, David Clark produced space suits and other aerospace equipment for NASA, including apparel worn on the moon and while flying North American X-15s. It produced escape suits for the shuttle program and developed a suit for NASA’s upcoming Orion program.
Felix Baumgartner had so much faith in the company that he tumbled out of a balloon at 128,000 feet and free fell to a parachute landing on Earth while wearing a specially made pressure suit that was designed by David Clark for the occasion.
The David Clark Co. not only supports pilots but has literally supported civilians as well. It produced the Sears Best brassiere throughout the 1950s.
An incredible gadget
Bras are not on my mind right now, however. I am enjoying the rock and roll sounds of my youth, while also piloting an airplane from my youth. The music is interrupted when there is a rare incoming transmission on my aircraft radio, and the music returns to its previous level afterward. I am currently tuned to Unicom so I can listen to my tunes without fear of losing situational awareness.
Phone calls can be done on my iPhone through the Bluetooth connection, assuming I have cell coverage, and somebody wants to talk with me.
I have been in the air for an hour now, but the 12.5-ounce headset rests on my melon like a helium-filled feather. No headset “brain squeeze” from the DC ONE-X. I can see that my headset and I are going to spend many airborne hours together grooving to the oldies and communicating with effortless clarity with the outside world of ATC, Unicoms, and other aircraft that find themselves in formation with me—either by design or accident.
The David Clark DC ONE-X headset provides me with a combination of crystal-clear communication, Bluetooth safety cues from my avionics, great music, and a thing that all aging pilots want—simple quiet.
The DC ONE-X is priced at $895 retail. It’s not as inexpensive as the cheapest noise-canceling ear-cans you can buy, but David Clark’s quality and attention to detail make the price worthwhile. Nobody wants a cheap headset of marginal quality when that head-on traffic warning comes over the air.
I have entered the almost idyllic, quiet world of noise-canceling aviation. Plug in and join me.
KEVIN GARRISON’S aviation career began at age 15 as a lineboy in Lakeland, Florida. He came up through General Aviation, retired as a 767 captain in 2006, and retired from instructing airline pilots in 2017. Garrison’s professional writing career has spanned three decades. Send questions or comments to editor@www.piperflyer.com.
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