Man, you find all kinds of people on this thread...

I've had a DC 13.4 for lessee, about nine years now. Still works, no
problems, comfortable for the most part, even on long five to six hour legs.
I don't smash it up as much as Mike does, but do stuff it in my flight bag,
wrap the cords around it, and- one of my ways of keeping entertained while
instructing- play "yoke toss" with it once in a while. While my student is
preflighting, they often leave the door open on the Pipers we fly. I'll
stroll over to the right side, and standing just behind the trailing edge,
toss my headset through the open door, with the intention of hooking it on
the right yoke. Most of the time it misses and either lands on the seat or
(more often) crashes to the floor. But you should see the reactions when I
do get it on the yoke. "Woah!" Just like at a carnival... g

I have seen plenty of students with DC H10-30s, which are a little cheaper.
Some have had problems with these. Minor annoyances are the screws on the
boom mike loosening, causing the mike to swing freely downward. Can be
easily tightened with a small screwdriver, but how often do you have one of
these at the start of a flight? Also, I've found I like the mike on the
H10-13.4's better, it provides noticibly clearer transmissions.

In regards to the ANR issue...Well, an ANR headset is on my list of "get
eventually" things, but not a big priority yet. I've had a chance to try a
number of ANR's out there, but I'll admit I haven't studied them that
closely. Main reason I've waited was that about two years ago I met a Peltor
headset technician in the exhibitor area at Oshkosh. I was in the market for
an ANR, and she actually discouraged me from getting one. Her explanation
was that ANR's work best for people with generally quiet aircraft that have
a dull low noise level that causes fatigue. She indicated that ANR headsets
attenuate low frequency noise well, which is what causes that fatigue over
time; but for the types of noisy general aviation aircraft that I teach in,
it would be a better value to have a good passive headset, which works
better on the high frequency noise that causes hearing damage. Just having
an ANR that "sounds really quiet" wasn't necessarily an indication of good
overall hearing protection.

Hey Mike, I don't suppose you dunked your headset in the inter-coastal
waterway too, huh?

-Eric



"Mike O'Malley" wrote in message
...

Conversely, my DC's that I've had for six years have been dropped, banged
around, shoved in my flight bag, left in the car in 105F summers and -15F
winters. They've been bashed around on the floor of a banner plane for
two
seasons, scuffed, scratched and all in all abused in just about every way.
They've been snowed on, rained on, had avgas spilled on, dropped in the
mud
and on concrete.

I've wrapped the cord around the headset, and pulled out the plugs by the
cord. Not all the time, but more than once. They still work like the day
I
got them. The only problem I've had was losing my mic muff two years ago.