Lightspeed Noise Canceling Headset

For all you pilots out there looking to purchase your first headset, or looking to upgrade your headset, I would strongly recommend looking at the Lightspeed active noise reduction headsets.

When I started flying in the early 90's, I couldn't afford more than the $150-$200 set. While a cheaper headset may be ok for the casual weekend flier in a single engine airplane, and ANR headset is really the way to go.

I work for a small regional airline, flying the mighty Beech 1900D. It's not an extremely loud plane, but it isn't exactly quiet either. When I first started, I was using the headsets from the old Cessna days. These weren't really quite cutting it. I was missing a lot of radio calls from ATC, and had a hard time hearing the Captains I was flying with. Not only was I missing radio calls, I couldn't concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing because I couldn't hear call-outs from the Captain. I had enough, and decided to to spend the money for a good set that will last me a long time.

I looked into a Bose system. I see many pilots flying with Bose, but I couldn't afford the $1000 to purchase one. A good friend of mine was a Lightspeed user for some time, and told me to look at it. I had purchased one for $680, and I wouldn't give it back for anything! The next time I flew was a night and day difference.

The Lightspeed runs off of two AA batteries. Depending on the brand of battery, you may get about three good hard days of use out of them before they need to be replaced. I soon realized that I couldn't afford to keep buying batteries for as much as I fly, so I spent the money for some good rechargeables. I know I can get three days of use out of them before they need to be recharged, but I still keep a pair of non-rechargeables on backup. There is a plug in the battery box for an MP3 player to plug into, or even your cell phone. I have a Motorola, which I can chat with the wife when on the ground through the boom mic. The battery box also has two separate sliding volume controls. One for the left side, and one for the right. Below those, there is a button which is a selector switch for increasing the treble and or the bass. Can be boosted separately or together.

If you're using an MP3 player, the volume is controlled by the player itself. The volume switches on the Lightspeed will adjust the audio volume of your flight radios without changing the volume of the MP3 player.

The Lightspeed is lightweight, and very comfortable to wear for long periods of time. The ear pieces are very soft, as well as the padding between the unit and the top of your head.

When the Lightspeed is switched on, the noise of the rumbling engines and propellers is dramatically reduced by about 20 Db. The first time I wore them, I had to look at the engine gages to be sure they were still running. I know that the price may seem a little bit unreasonable to some of you just for a headset, but what it can do for your hearing is priceless! Spend the money, and you'll be glad you did. I guarantee you'll never go back to the days without ANR.