gerrychuck
Well Known Member
I have been flying now for a few hours with a helmet; enough experience with it to have a good set of initial impressions which I thought I'd share.
First, my primary reason for moving to the helmet is that I had a mitral valve failure last fall, and therefore I now have a spanky new mechanical one which requires me to be on anticoagulants (warfarin/coumadin) for the rest of my life. One of the issues with anticoagulation is that you are somewhat more vulnerable to brain bleeds if you take a hard head bump. I am 6'3", putting my head pretty close to the canopy, and fly an A model (enough said about that for now) to boot, and have had enough close calls with birds that I decided it was worth trying the brain bucket.
I bought a lightly used HGU-55 shell on ebay, minus inner liner, earcups and earphones, and visors. This suited me fine, as I would need to replace the low impedance military electronics with high impedance GA stuff anyway. I purchased Headsets Inc's helmet ANR kit and ear cups, and scavenged a mic boom and DC electret mic off an unused headset I had lying around, got a properly fitted Oregon Aero Zetaliner, got everything wired up (with a couple of tries) and was in business. I have flip up Scheyden prescription sunglasses, so I didn't (at least for now) bother with visors.
Initial impressions: Comfort - a really pleasant surprise is how comfy this setup is; the helmet (especially without visors) is extremely light, and distributes the clamping force over your whole head, as opposed to through a narrow headset band. The zetaliner really contributes to this; I have no pressure points or hot spots at all, not even where my sunglasses go through the ear pads. So far I've worn it up to 1.5 hrs at a time, and felt I could have worn it all day without feeling any the worse for it. Visibility - the HGU-55 is cut high and wide to facilitate visibility, and the helmet does not intrude on my upward or peripheral vision at all. The only proviso is that I kind of miss the brim on my ball cap shading my eyes. I may end up fitting a snap on visor at some point to address this. Sound attenuation - without ANR, it's decent, but when its turned on the noise cancellation is impressive; much more pronounced attenuation than with my Gulf Coast Avionics (Lightspeed made) ANR sets used previously. Totally cuts out the low frequency engine noise and makes for a very quiet cockpit. Looks - Well, anyone who accuses me of wearing a fighter helmet cause I want to look cool clearly hasn't seen me in it. For those of you who remember the Flintstones, the best way to describe my appearance is that I look an awful lot like The Great Gazoo. Enough said.
At the end of the day, I have found a lot of positives, some expected and some not, with this change, and no negatives worth mentioning. I had worried about comfort, about weight, and about clearance in the cockpit, (particularly considering my height). Surprisingly (at least to me) I found all these areas were improved compared to headsets. In other words, I am giving up nothing, and in fact improving those areas, in trade for the extra margin of safety.
Sorry for writing a novel. Thought this might be of interest for any other pilots considering trying a helmet, so I thought I'd add my .02 to the knowledge base.
First, my primary reason for moving to the helmet is that I had a mitral valve failure last fall, and therefore I now have a spanky new mechanical one which requires me to be on anticoagulants (warfarin/coumadin) for the rest of my life. One of the issues with anticoagulation is that you are somewhat more vulnerable to brain bleeds if you take a hard head bump. I am 6'3", putting my head pretty close to the canopy, and fly an A model (enough said about that for now) to boot, and have had enough close calls with birds that I decided it was worth trying the brain bucket.
I bought a lightly used HGU-55 shell on ebay, minus inner liner, earcups and earphones, and visors. This suited me fine, as I would need to replace the low impedance military electronics with high impedance GA stuff anyway. I purchased Headsets Inc's helmet ANR kit and ear cups, and scavenged a mic boom and DC electret mic off an unused headset I had lying around, got a properly fitted Oregon Aero Zetaliner, got everything wired up (with a couple of tries) and was in business. I have flip up Scheyden prescription sunglasses, so I didn't (at least for now) bother with visors.
Initial impressions: Comfort - a really pleasant surprise is how comfy this setup is; the helmet (especially without visors) is extremely light, and distributes the clamping force over your whole head, as opposed to through a narrow headset band. The zetaliner really contributes to this; I have no pressure points or hot spots at all, not even where my sunglasses go through the ear pads. So far I've worn it up to 1.5 hrs at a time, and felt I could have worn it all day without feeling any the worse for it. Visibility - the HGU-55 is cut high and wide to facilitate visibility, and the helmet does not intrude on my upward or peripheral vision at all. The only proviso is that I kind of miss the brim on my ball cap shading my eyes. I may end up fitting a snap on visor at some point to address this. Sound attenuation - without ANR, it's decent, but when its turned on the noise cancellation is impressive; much more pronounced attenuation than with my Gulf Coast Avionics (Lightspeed made) ANR sets used previously. Totally cuts out the low frequency engine noise and makes for a very quiet cockpit. Looks - Well, anyone who accuses me of wearing a fighter helmet cause I want to look cool clearly hasn't seen me in it. For those of you who remember the Flintstones, the best way to describe my appearance is that I look an awful lot like The Great Gazoo. Enough said.
At the end of the day, I have found a lot of positives, some expected and some not, with this change, and no negatives worth mentioning. I had worried about comfort, about weight, and about clearance in the cockpit, (particularly considering my height). Surprisingly (at least to me) I found all these areas were improved compared to headsets. In other words, I am giving up nothing, and in fact improving those areas, in trade for the extra margin of safety.
Sorry for writing a novel. Thought this might be of interest for any other pilots considering trying a helmet, so I thought I'd add my .02 to the knowledge base.
