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Jeff0181

Active Member
I'm planning on installing a GMA-240 for my audio panel and had some questions about pilot isolate:

1. Does the isolate feature isolate the pilot, radio transmissions, and aux input or just the pilot and radio transmissions?

2. Anyone know if a way to set up a switch in the back of an RV-8 so the passenger can select or deselect isolate?
 
per the manual:
Isolate on: pilot hears everything except rear seat passenger (music optional); back seat hears music and, if he talks to himself, he hears that.

Have you considered whether you really need an audio panel? More and more builders are concluding "no", and just put in a good intercom, and a switch to move mic and PTT between radios.
 
BobTurner said:
Have you considered whether you really need an audio panel? More and more builders are concluding "no", and just put in a good intercom, and a switch to move mic and PTT between radios.
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I used to be in the "audio panel not required" camp, but now that there are some excellent and very competitively priced audio panels available it seems almost silly not install one unless you are really pressed for panel space. They offer tons of features, improved flexibility along with a built in intercom, all for not much more than the price of a stand alone intercom.
 
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Walt said:
I used to be in the "audio panel not required" camp, but now that there are some excellent and very competitively priced audio panels available it seems almost silly not install one unless you are really pressed for panel space. They offer tons of features, improved flexibility along with a built in intercom, all for not much more than the price of a stand alone intercom.
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Both have good points. There are a lot of items I probably don't need. Like 2 radios for instance because most can monitor a 2nd freq.

The GMA-240 is $600 more than a Dynon intercom. For all of the extra options that isn't that bad.

Now that I think about it though, I guess I could get a Dynon intercom, a switch to swap between what radios I am using and use 2 different buttons on the stick to push to talk on either comm 1 or comm 2.

Still curious if anyone has any advice on how to wire a switch to the back seat that would allow them to isolate themselves.
 
Seems to me that you don't really need the "isolate" feature in a 2-place airplane. Usually you would like to be able to communicate with either the back-seater or the right-seater.

OTOH, in a 4 or more place airplane, the isolate feature is nice to allow the pilot to only hear the important stuff. And the decision to isolate or not should be at the PIC's discretion, not the passengers. The PIC needs to be able to cut out extraneous conversation during busy times.

MY $0.02, and YMMV.
 
PCHunt said:
Seems to me that you don't really need the "isolate" feature in a 2-place airplane. Usually you would like to be able to communicate with either the back-seater or the right-seater.

OTOH, in a 4 or more place airplane, the isolate feature is nice to allow the pilot to only hear the important stuff. And the decision to isolate or not should be at the PIC's discretion, not the passengers. The PIC needs to be able to cut out extraneous conversation during busy times.

MY $0.02, and YMMV.
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That makes sense, however, my 99% passenger on cross country flights is going to be my wife. In our previous plane, a Cozy, we would take off and she would generally go to sleep or watch stuff on the iPad (we had a lot of 5-6 hour flights) and she would flip the isolate switch to isolate until she needed something.

I agree that for the most part the pilot should control it, it was just easier for me to let her control the isolate function then having to constantly ask if she wanted to be isolated or her to ask me to isolate or de-isolate whenever she needed to talk.

The easiest thing would be for her to just unplug 1 jack of her headset but that puts a lot of wear on the jacks.
 
I think you can accomplish what you want by having a headset with a volume control. True, the volume doesn't usually go to zero, but that's a good thing in case you need to talk to her. In flight, "isolated": wife turns headset volume down, moves mike into 'stored' position above her head, so she won't trip squelch if she sings. If you need to speak to her, turn her intercom volume up. If she needs you, she puts her mic back and turns up her volume.
Downside: music volume to her thru intercom is also reduced.
 
If you would just like to unplug a jack, you can run the wires thru a small relay. Control the relay with 2 SPDT switches, one up front and one in back. Wire the switches the same way you wire a house light controlled by two switches.
 
BobTurner said:
If you would just like to unplug a jack, you can run the wires thru a small relay. Control the relay with 2 SPDT switches, one up front and one in back. Wire the switches the same way you wire a house light controlled by two switches.
Click to expand...

That isn't a bad idea, pretty much just making an on/off switch for the jack IOT isolate it complete and both for and aft cockpit could control it.
 
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