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Tip: Tucking in the headsets and jacks

Latintan

Well Known Member
After flying with cords all over the stick and not having a good place to place the headsets when not in use, I came up with this idea with spare sheet metal I had at the hangar. The assembly is mounted to the back vertical center post behind the pilot and copilot. It is 3/4" off the face with standoffs in order to route the headset ends up and into the jacks. I think it's going to work GREAT on my RV6-A.

Manny "Snap-Roll" Oro
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If it comes unplugged, can you get to it? Not theoretically, but have you sat in the cockpit, canopy closed, etc., to see if you can reach back there and get a plug inserted?

I consider anything behind the seats pretty much inaccessible in flight, the one exception being the O2 tank which, although it can be a pain, is reachable (center mount, upright, between the seats on the back, where your headset jack bracket is).
 
This will be a satisfactory solution as long as the baggage compartment is empty. But if you plan to make trips in your -6A that compartment is going to be crammed with stuff and I don't see how the bracket is going to be practical. Seems to me the bracket will be getting snagged while loading and unloading the compartment.

But....maybe not...... :)
 
I had my headset jacks installed in the cross brace between the seats which worked well. I have since installed the almost 14 mod and the headset jacks now go in the center piece provided by anti splat with the mod. They are out of the way still and work great.
 
This will be a satisfactory solution as long as the baggage compartment is empty. But if you plan to make trips in your -6A that compartment is going to be crammed with stuff and I don't see how the bracket is going to be practical. Seems to me the bracket will be getting snagged while loading and unloading the compartment.

But....maybe not...... :)
After traveling a lot last summer, this was my first thought as well. I'm still looking for a good solution. The best I've seen is up on the fwd fuselage side, just above and forward of pilot/passenger's outboard knee.
 
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If it comes unplugged, can you get to it? Not theoretically, but have you sat in the cockpit, canopy closed, etc., to see if you can reach back there and get a plug inserted?

I consider anything behind the seats pretty much inaccessible in flight, the one exception being the O2 tank which, although it can be a pain, is reachable (center mount, upright, between the seats on the back, where your headset jack bracket is).
My friend has that solution which I liked. But then the headset connector strain relief was damaged so I decided to place them down from the top access. Also, I now have a place to store my headsets nicely behind the seats
 
I had my headset jacks installed in the cross brace between the seats which worked well. I have since installed the almost 14 mod and the headset jacks now go in the center piece provided by anti splat with the mod. They are out of the way still and work great.

But I have headset holders! :)
 
After traveling a lot last summer, this was my first thought as well. I'm still looking for a good solution. The best I've seen is up on the fwd fuselage side, just above and forward of pilot/passenger's outboard knee.

I bought my RV6 built. The builders solution was to put it like you mention but the connector stems with the strain relief protruded at an angle and pushed against my let. Also, I did not like the cables all over the front AND I did not have a good place to store the headsets. This solution covers all of my problems. At least for me it seems to work
 
This will be a satisfactory solution as long as the baggage compartment is empty. But if you plan to make trips in your -6A that compartment is going to be crammed with stuff and I don't see how the bracket is going to be practical. Seems to me the bracket will be getting snagged while loading and unloading the compartment.

But....maybe not...... :)

True but not an issue for me. I travel lite! :) :)
 
Cons

I had a similar thing in my 9A for a while, but finally bit the bullet and moved it to the side behind each seat and protected under the bulkhead rail, since we use our 9A alot to travel with, getting bags in and out without banging the head phone connectors was a nuisance to the point i finally just made the move on it, I suspect you may find the same thing, unless like the earlier comment your baggage area is empty space. With a wife traveling with me, that is never the case in our plane. but it looks nice. Good luck with the build, these are the things we all learn along the way, what works and what does not for the way each of us use our planes.
 
I installed my jacks at the aft end of the arm rests. Works great and out of the way. Changing a headset while strapped in, though, is not possible and difficult when not strapped in.
 
I installed my jacks at the aft end of the arm rests. Works great and out of the way. Changing a headset while strapped in, though, is not possible and difficult when not strapped in.

I know that people can do whatever they want, but I still have to say that I think this is a safety-of-flight issue (as is the OP's proposed location). Murphy usually rears his ugly head at the worst possible time, and if you can't get to the jacks (or it's very hard to do) to reinsert them, it can make a bad situation worse. I know everyone will say "but I've never had mine come out", but we should be asking "what if it does?".

I don't want to lose comm because of poor placement of the jacks, especially since it's likely to occur in situations like turbulence, etc., or worse...if it happens, say, in IMC.

To each his own, but it's just as easy to put them in an *accessible* location as an inaccessible one.
 
I installed my jacks at the aft end of the arm rests. Works great and out of the way. Changing a headset while strapped in, though, is not possible and difficult when not strapped in.

I had them there too and surprisingly, it was more difficult to get to them than behind the crew! So I took them out.
 
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