When did the use of headsets come en vogue?

[NoHeat]

And GPS. Call me spoiled, but those two things are huge IMO.

In addition to headsets/intercoms and gps, I would add satellite weather.

Our engines and airframes haven't changed much since the 1960s, but avionics have for sure, and I would put those three at the top of the list.

 

[N3368K]

Started in 78 in Cub with nothing. Bought first headset in 86. Only used them in a couple of planes before then. Used a Gosport in Stearman in 80s.

 

[midcap]

In addition to headsets/intercoms and gps, I would add satellite weather.

Our engines and airframes haven't changed much since the 1960s, but avionics have for sure, and I would put those three at the top of the list.

Very good points. Aviation is a lot like boating in that aspect.

 

[35 AoA]

I wonder what he would say if he knew what I paid for my Bose X when they were new

It should also be noted that most conversations with him involve several requests for a repeat...

After many years of flying with cheap headsets, and/or mostly a helmet, I flew with a Bose a few months ago for the first time. It blew my mind. So incredibly quiet, nearly perfect muting of the onboard iPad soundtrack, etc. Granted it was my first foray into active noise canceling and modern headset technology, so there of course may be better competitors out there, but still worth every penny IMHO!

 

[flyingron]

In 1988 I was one of the early adopters in headsets (I had a pair of DC's and a portable intercom and wouldn't fly with anybody who didn't instruct with them). In a few years, they were pretty much common.

 

[Shepherd]

I learned to fly in the mid 1960s at a seaplane base where every plane was wired for military style headsets (the owner was a WWII Navy fighter pilot). From there I went to the Civil Air Patrol which had every plane wired for headsets.
The first time I go into a GA plane that didn't have a headset I nearly lost my mind. How could people fly like this? A hand held mike and speakers?!!? This was just nuts.
I solved the problem by going into the Air Force.
They had headsets.
After I got out, I put headset adapters in everything I flew.

 

[rbridges]

My first cfi was in his 70's around 8 years ago. He was veryyyy hard of hearing. He blamed a lot of it on flying. He told me that they used the overhead speaker and a mic. I had always assumed headsets in GA had been around forever.

 

[ChemGuy]

I learned in the mid 90's, Spring of '94, to be exact. The flight school rented headsets for a buck or 2 a flight, if you were lucky and they werent all being used. Having just left the Army with some hearing loss and tinnitus in 1 ear, I bought an el cheapo headset from them, for about $100 pretty quickly. David Clarks were the tops and i lusted after a pair of DC's. They were way too much money though. ~$35/hr wet for a 150/152 was so much money....

 

[BigBadLou]

How true...

LOL Absolutely true. You have no idea how many of those I see/hear.

 

[silver-eagle]

When I started flying, C152, crap handheld mic, and overhead speaker. I recall buying a PTT switch but don't remember (now) how or when I used it. When I started flying Warriors and Archers in '93, the instructor suggested we could hear better with headsets. My first was a sigtronix, still in use as backup.
Next was a pair of DC-13X which need some service. I then bought a used BOSE X, then Lightspeed zulus. I seem to have gravitated to the zulus but any of them work well. None of the ANRS work well in the helicopter or the NAVION when the battery dies.

 

[Richman67]

In addition to headsets/intercoms and gps, I would add satellite weather.

Our engines and airframes haven't changed much since the 1960s, but avionics have for sure, and I would put those three at the top of the list.

You can surf through old copies of Flying on Google Books, and it's interesting to see how avionics have progressed.

It was essentially VHF NAV and COM for decades. Dialing a freq without tuning and having more than a few channels were big steps, as was being able to communicate and navigate at the same time. The NAV/COM the way we know it didn't really pop up until the early 60's (360 channels, fully independent NAV/COM). The KX170s were dang fine boxes and represented the pinnacle at the time. After that, improvements only happened in degrees...like digital displays and standby frequencies.

Something like an Apollo SL-30 wasn't even imaginable.

There were complicated and cumbersome RNAV type units starting in the 60s, including some "moving maps" (they were maps...that moved...no joke). VLF and Omega were there, but essentially for transports only.

ADFs took a different path because they are relatively complicated, electronically speaking.

The next big step for GA was LORAN-C. Those boxes started popping up around 86-87, and became common in the late 80s. The boxes like the Northstar M1 and Apollo 618 were wonders. I want to say that ARNAV made the one box that could be updated by card...everything else had to be removed to be updated. It took a long time, as I recall, for LORAN to be certified even for enroute IFR. They'd published some LORAN approaches, but I want to say they never got activated.

Richman

 

[Pilawt]

It was essentially VHF NAV and COM for decades. Dialing a freq without tuning and having more than a few channels were big steps, as was being able to communicate and navigate at the same time. The NAV/COM the way we know it didn't really pop up until the early 60's (360 channels, fully independent NAV/COM).

Much of my pre-solo training was in a 7EC Champ with a Narco Superhomer -- ten transmitter crystals and an analog receiver. It had a "whistle-stop" function that made a tone in the receiver when you cranked the tuner to the same frequency as the transmitter crystal in use. I got my commercial, instrument and CFI in a C-150E with a single 90-channel Narco Mark 12, VOR/LOC indicator, marker beacon receiver and stopwatch.

Here's Narco's "Dream Package" avionics suite from 1962 ... 65 pounds and only about $60,000 in today's-value money:

There were complicated and cumbersome RNAV type units starting in the 60s, including some "moving maps" (they were maps...that moved...no joke).

Here's a 1968 article on such a system (scroll down to page 78): https://books.google.com/books?id=A...=onepage&q=flying magazine magic maps&f=false

 

[overtorqued]

I have a handheld mic in the cirrus. I still can't fathom using it for anything other than trying to be funny.

I fly a Quest Kodiak with a helmet and cep's in Indonesia. Using the hand held mic and speaker is nice for getting start clearances instead of putting the helmet on and off. (I do starts without the helmet to listen for anything abnormal as the cep's/helmet combo is very quiet)

 

[MickYoumans]

In the early 80's I purchased a Cessna 150 M to learn to fly. It had a microphone and overhead speaker. I don't remember there being any provision for headsets.

 

[chemgeek]

I started training in 1984. No one wore headsets then in our training planes. I bought my first plane in 1985 and promptly bought and intercom and headset. Within a few years no one at our airport flew without headsets.

A good clue was that my flight instructor was pretty deaf.