www.brantly.info

Is anyone wearing a helicopter helmet when flying? And if so just wondering why and if I should be. Any comments would be apreciated

Jim
maulepilot@charter.net

As for wearing helmets, I wear an HGU-56P when flying in the Army and a FlightComm Denali headset when Flying civilian. Pros and Cons of each:

The helmet offers some safety in the fact that it is lined with a "shock liner" to help prevent head injury during the crash sequence and also provides some buoyancy if you were to have an incident over water. As far as noice cancellation, you have the passive type earcup only. Also, you may want to look into what type of connections your aircraft is outfiited with. In general aviation, most aircraft use the two plug type. Adaptors are available on the market to make the conversion to the one plug type which most helmets use. I particularly had an issue with my helmet when I first started flying with it due to the fact that it takes a significant amount of your periphial vision away that you don't realize you use when hovering. That makes for a lot more head movements and can cause spatial disorientation.

As for my headsets, I have the passive noise reduction in the earcup as well as the active noise reduction with the little switch. They have a smaller carrying case, not a helmet bag. There is not much safety involved as far as head injuries go and would most likely become a projectile in a crash sequence. I will say that I like the fact that I can take them with me to almost any civilian aircraft and use them without looking out of place. Greater use of periphial vision without major head movements is achieved with headsets.

I will mention that my helmet and my headset are outfitted with Communication Ear Plugs (CEP's). These are simply foam earplugs with a tiny speaker attached to them and they are spliced into the audio side of the helmet. The CEP's allow for more passsive noice cancellation as they inseert into the ear canal just like regular ear plugs. The added benefit is that the audio is now being produced directly into the ear canal which means I can turn down the volume on my radios and still get to hear them with much greater clarity. So basically, the CEP's should help prevent hearling loss or at least prolong me from buying hearing aids.

Anyway, I hope that helps...

My Instructor was from New Zealand - and he said that everone wore one there. He didn't here, though. lol!

I found an Army surplus one and bought the appropriate connectors to match the civilian radio. One benefit is the sun visor which is easier to use than sunglasses.

Questions - the Brantly seems a bit tight on headroom - does anyone wear a helmet in their Brantly? Plenty of room in an R-22, but a Brantly is my dream...

I wore a helmet in my B2B, and I am 6'1''. I bought a helmet from David Clark that fits around your existing headphones.

Steve