Headsets, tablets, and quiet kids

Jim K

Jim K

Final Approach
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Richard Digits
Planning to take my first truly long xc next week; taking my two oldest (11&7) to universal Orlando. 6 hours in the Dakota, planning one fuel/ lunch stop. Beats the heck out of the 17hr interstate grind or getting groped by tsa, and I can't tell you how excited I am to be able to isolate myself from the inevitable bickering.... you know.... for safety.

Anyway, I have nice bluetooth anr headsets for my wife & I, but the kids are stuck with used DC's. I would like for them to be able to watch movies on their tablets and also not damage their hearing. I ordered 1/8 to 1/4 adapter cables, and also trs to ts adapters, but I'm concerned if the tablets will have enough power to drive the headset speakers loud enough to hear. Anyone have any experience with this?
 
Bring a deck of cards just in case.

This is a fun one: https://explodingkittens.com/

Oh, and I have successfully used a DC 13.4 with an iPad but it on the ground rather than the heat of battle.

Also, get familiar with the ISO switch in the audio panel if it has one.
 
They should be able to hear the tablets fine, but if you have time, look on Craigslist/eBay for a couple of used sets of Bose QC25’s. Cheap enough and will keep them much more comfortable
 
Dana said:
The kids can use their normal earbuds under the headphones, then they can hear their tablets and the intercom.
Click to expand...

This was my suggestion, but apparently my wife has tried to get them to use earbuds and they don't like them. I have some small size memory foam tips that came with my shures that would make a set of earbuds much more comfortable. I'll try that.

7_Zero_Whiskey said:
They should be able to hear the tablets fine, but if you have time, look on Craigslist/eBay for a couple of used sets of Bose QC25’s. Cheap enough and will keep them much more comfortable
Click to expand...

I didn't know the qc25s were getting so cheap. Good solution.
 
Another vote for earbuds under the headsets. Also don’t forget to download the movies. If they normally stream them. Edit: whoops, message crossed.

They can always turn on CC. :)

This is exactly the mission we had with our two kids. So very much better than the Interstate or TSA.

Oh, also bring charged battery sticks and don’t forget the cables.

I like these: https://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-POW...MJ0W&psc=1&qid=1577970043&smid=A2UX2NOV6U33XD
 
Jim K said:
This was my suggestion, but apparently my wife has tried to get them to use earbuds and they don't like them. I have some small size memory foam tips that came with my shures that would make a set of earbuds much more comfortable. I'll try that.
Click to expand...

They'll "like" them if they're their only option other than listening to ATC.
 
When we took long road trips with our three kids (and we did some LONG ones...quite a few more than 20 hours with only gas/bathroom stops), we always involved them with route planning. They had their own maps to follow along, books to read, travel games like checkers, chess, and we played a lot of word games. We all looked forward to the family time in the car at least as much as we did the actual destination. Even if tablets and smartphones existed back then, our kids wouldn't have had them.
 
Back in the early 60s I remember traveling on long trips in the car with my mom and dad and sister. After whining too much about being bored, dad would glare at me in the rear view mirror... ''You want me to give you something to cry about.??''

Then I would say, ''You want me to do something to make you give me something to cry about.??'' Well, that is what I would say in my head, never out loud...

Times sure have changed....
 
I'd imagine some prolonged high altitude flying ought to solve all "kids fighting" issues and put them to sleep unless they're used to Leadville or Telluride altitudes ;);)
 
Zeldman said:
Back in the early 60s I remember traveling on long trips in the car with my mom and dad and sister. After whining too much about being bored, dad would glare at me in the rear view mirror... ''You want me to give you something to cry about.??''

Then I would say, ''You want me to do something to make you give me something to cry about.??'' Well, that is what I would say in my head, never out loud...

Times sure have changed....
Click to expand...

when my dad had to pull over, u better brace for pain...
 
Regale then with stories of flying the airlines with your knees jammed up your nose and two 600 lb sweaty guys on either side in a center seat.

It’s like the “uphill in the snow both ways” stories of getting to school. They’ll jam those earbuds in to get rid of dad so fast...

LOL.
 
Zeldman said:
Back in the early 60s I remember traveling on long trips in the car with my mom and dad and sister. After whining too much about being bored, dad would glare at me in the rear view mirror... ''You want me to give you something to cry about.??''

Then I would say, ''You want me to do something to make you give me something to cry about.??'' Well, that is what I would say in my head, never out loud...

Times sure have changed....
Click to expand...

Ah, family road trips in the 60s. No such thing as seatbelts much less car seats. You have the entire back seat, the floorboards, the rear windshield deck, and if you have a station wagon, the “way back”, like it was all a big playground.
 
I don't think anyone has actually answered the OP's question yet. I believe I tried plugging a standard mini phone/tablet jack into a aviation headset via an adapter and I think it worked but not crazy loud or great. Sorry I can't be more confident as I moved away from that solution right away. I know the other way around with the plane's intercom trying to drive a standard mic input to a GoPro does not work and requires a special cable.

Back to your kids setup. As I said we first tried what you are asking about but our daughter was only 7 at the time and the DC was just to big/heavy. So we bought one of those pink kids headsets. The aren't all that great but do have a separate jack and volume adjustment for the audio input. That worked quite well until we got a ANR Bluetooth headset (Zulu 3). Now our daughter uses that setup and streams the tablet audio directly to the headset. She then presses the isolate button so that ATC/Intercom does not interrupt the audio from the movie. And the last step is to turn the main headset volume all the way down (it won't go totally quiet though) so that the ATC/Intercom being mixed in is not much of a distraction. Then they kids can turn up the Bluetooth volume on the headset (separate volume) and on the tablet to get it to work for them.

So far with limited comparison, the Zulu 3's are better than the A20 for this setup because the Zulu 3's allow you to turn the main volume down a bit more and they ANR in the Zulu 3's is stronger (IMHO). I wouldn't have believed it until I flew both yesterday. I started with the A20's and after about 20 minutes they just felt loud. I'm not sure if its the larger ear cup or seals or just the ANR hardware and algorithm on the Zulu 3's but I could really notice it. The A20's did win for overall comfort, controller size, fit into the flight bag and the phone call quality (from the pilot's perspective). But both would work for a kid to stream movies and minimize all other sounds,

If you really want your kids to have the movies (mine loves it to pass the time!) why don't you switch headsets with them and have them stream with no wires and get the benefit of the ANR.

Re: earbuds. I think its great option for older kids. Your 11yo might be able to get them to be workable but I suspect the 7yo might have troubles.

Have a great trip! Let us know how it all worked out, there's lots of us flying with kids and tips are appreciated.
 
With the cheap QC25s, perhaps get (or make) the UFly Mike and then kill two birds with one stone.
 
Got my order from the usual scumbags today... turns out the trs to ts adapters were unnecessary, the mono plugs on the dc's work just fine with the (presumably) stereo 1/8-1/4 adapters.

With the tablets and headsets turned up all the way, I would describe it as adequately loud. Im not sure how it will be in the airplane, but I don't know that I want them to be able to turn it up much louder anyway. It's also possible the kid edition fire tablets have limited volume. I'll have to try on my tablet tomorrow.

I went with dc's for the kids in the first place because a) I'm cheap, b)I wanted something indestructible with good mics, and c)I didn't want to deal with batteries and control boxes in the back seat. Im really hoping these will be loud enough, but I suppose the next option would be a headphone amplifier, which I didn't know existed until embarking on this project.

At that age, I would've given anything just to be able to look out the window for 6 hours. Actually at this age I still would.... so I learned to fly. I guess I can't expect everyone to have the same loose wiring as me though.
 
Many a pilot (especially guys) have just assumed the wife would love flying and they don't and then it becomes mega complicated. The same can happen with kids. What is exciting to us for the entire flight might be exciting to them for about 16 minutes. Plus they are shorter so harder to see out and down in some planes. Throw in some chop and things can get really uncomfortable for them, even with tech to distract them. Tight fitting headsets (more-so than too heavy) don't help much. Neither does constant ATC banter or even chatting on the intercom between mom and dad. You would think telling a kid "look out the window" would just work but it just doesn't in every case. @Brad Z wrote a great article on flying with kids, its linked on PoA here somewhere. Our daughter started flying when she was 3 in a car seat. Here's is what I have watched:

- When up front (co-pilot) way more engaged and less likely to be finicky / uneasy
- She still misses the Chief because she would see out more easily than the 182.
- Tight clampy headsets really hurt and after about 20 minutes that is all she would think about
- She loved the big old DC's after I put on their newest cushiest ear seals plus not clampy since so old.
- Looking outside gets old for her after about 15 minutes.
- Knowing there is a throw up bag (the blue plastic ones) makes her more at ease
- Age 4...9 knowing there was a small blue bag she could pee in made her at ease for long trips
- She has never puked or needed to pee
- Having mom or a friend in the back can easily extend the trip time into the hours.
- Climb above any chop if you can plus its cooler in the summer.
- Have lots of airflow - in the hot part of summer we have a small battery powered handheld fan!
- Have a way to block the hot sun if needed.
- She now uses the Zulu 3's because ANR is awesome! She loves them because she can turn down the ATC/Intercom
- We always bring a portable wifi hotspot with ripped TV episodes & movies. So her (and friend) can stream like at home.
- Simple snacks like Vanilla wafers. Easy on water until the second half of the flight.
- Arrive before the rest of the crew. Have it all ready. They pull up, hit the bathroom, jump in and go.

...maybe until they get older you can find some old FlightComm headsets that also have the dedicated audio input adapter. Then they can turn down the ATC volume and turn up the music volume. Throw on some really cushy ear seals. Stretch them out a bit if to tight by always storing them on a old soccer ball or something.
 
My vote is for the QC25s. I can almost guarantee that your little ones aren’t going to tolerate the clamping pressure of the DCs for six hours.
 
We're doing two 3 hour legs. Should be more like 2.5 hrs if the wind forecast holds up. Long lunch break in the middle. I've had both of them up for 2 hours at a stretch, so I think we'll be okay. Haven't had complaints about the dcs yet. Im sure as their heads get bigger it will be more of an issue.

I learned my lesson on that 2 hr sight seeing trip. About 15min in and they were playing games with each other and drawing on the fog on the windows lol. I had to have a specific landmark to show them to get them looking outside. They claim to love flying though, and are always begging for steep turns and stalls. Keeps me in practice and I don't think air sickness will be our issue. I just need to stave off the arguing and obnoxious songs.

Sun shades wouldve been a great idea...I meant to get some after our last trip and forgot. I'll have to bring masking tape and the checklists for the other plane.
 
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