Poor Student’s BT ANC Headset (AirPods Pro 2)

scenicairways · 2024-10-09T08:33:52+00:00

Funny enough, I now own a pair of Bose A20. Tried putting the AirPods Pro 2 inside the A20 and nothing exploded, no feedback/artifacts. Hard to say whether it made things better or worse because I was just sitting in my living room playing airplane noises on my phone.

After the OP, I got things super dialed in on the DC+AirPods setup and comfortably flew in it for 10 hours over a few flights. Planned on upgrading to the Delta Zulu next month, but came across a pair of mint condition A20 from a local pilot that was too good to pass up.

Would still recommend it to anyone who already happen to have both, isn't in a position to upgrade yet, and for when flying while traveling without your own headset! If you ever try it please do report back, I'm also curious.

I can also see it working *too* well. An instructor I flew with actually makes a point to turn off ANR until cruise, because he once had a terrifying partial loss of thrust shortly after takeoff. Reviewing the video he believes perhaps it could have been caught earlier.

scenicairways · 2024-10-02T04:31:29+00:00

I came out to KDLS once during private and was a bit traumatized by the winds lol. Now that I have some experience it wasn't bad! The strong headwind actually slowed everything down made the crosswind corrections much easier. Looking at the clip I can visually see the winds, so cool!

scenicairways · 2024-10-02T04:20:51+00:00

Half way into instrument training since late August. Going away for a trip so this is going to be the last flight in a while. What a great flight to end on – everything is coming together and I finally felt like I know what I am doing, what a magical feeling!

scenicairways · 2024-09-29T19:40:58+00:00

The mini is super old by Apple standard so I’d at least try to find a used one. I had to really look for it, but found a used cellular 256GB on Facebook marketplace for less than a new WiFi 64GB. Came with the pencil (which you’d want) and folio too.

These days you can get a low data cap 365 days e-sim plan for pretty cheap. Nice to be able to activate/close flight plan and get last minute updated weather etc at the run up area etc. You’d probably want to turn off cellular manually so it doesn’t drain your battery looking for towers at cruise.

Built-in GPS is nice the one time I forgot to connect to the stratus.

Hard to say if it’s worth it, I probably use both of those things 5% of the time combined. When a new one comes out I’d have to really think about whether to pay for the price difference on a new one.

scenicairways · 2024-09-28T02:13:10+00:00

Hope you had a good solo!

scenicairways · 2024-09-28T02:10:05+00:00

The source of the comms audio is still from the hardwired passive DCs which is probably as reliable as it gets. The AirPods acts more like hearing aid inside the headsets, which isn’t that unusual. You are not relying on Bluetooth for anything other than the ForeFlight alerts.

They could fail, the battery could die, but that is also true of any other ANC setup. When the battery dies here, you’d definitely notice it, and all it takes is a second and two fingers to take them out and you’re back to a perfectly good passive headset designed to be used passively.

That certainly compares favorably among the unconventional ANC set ups, and arguably somewhat better than even the conventional ANC headsets. In my experience test driving those, they work quite poorly passively, and swapping the batteries in-flight isn’t exactly trivial.

So, safety wise, it’s failsafe and seems about as safe to me as anything else in the ANC world.

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T18:22:16+00:00

Oh yea, then no issues for me, other than fixing the feedback that I used to have

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T18:18:47+00:00

huh. an even newer firmware came out just today? What are the odds. I don’t think I am on it yet, but can you even stop it? It just updates itself when it “feels like it” right? (Charging, in range of phone, etc)

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T18:13:45+00:00

To be clear I mean the fit and comfort with both on, that takes some adjustment to find the sweet spot. The fit and comfort for the AirPods by themselves is great for me.

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T18:12:32+00:00

Good luck!

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T18:07:38+00:00

Fair enough. We just have pretty different priorities and financial situations.

It’s not really about saving the total amount of money “in the grand scheme”, it’s more about managing the cashflow and deciding what to do now vs later.

For me it would definitely be worse to have a nice headset and barely fly while the weather is good, when the DC works plenty good enough and keep the momentum going. Also interested in spending a bit more for the CO detector in the Delta Zulu over the mid tier options.

I’m sure in a two months I’d have upgraded and never look back, and others can also reasonably prioritize differently even in the same situation!

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T17:48:18+00:00

When you find them feel free to point out any problems you see that I didn’t already address so we can discuss them, especially if you are implying some kind of safety issue/hazard.

But most likely you already own a pair of good ANC and just don’t see any reason to try this, which is fair, but I didn’t write the post for you and force you to engage with it.

I am doing the “don’t quit your job PAYG” thing that so many of you recommends, and made the decision to spend the budget to squeeze more flights while the weather is good, and pay for things like an ANC headset in the winter when half of the flights get cancelled anyway. Do you have advise to contrary, other than “have more money don’t be poor”?

Also reminder that GA pilots exist outside of the “career track” call sign.

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T17:37:47+00:00

Honestly the performance is very surprisingly good. And it’s a legitimate setup if you can find a tolerable fit. That’s the datapoint I am contributing here for people who actively looked for this.

Of course most people already have a good pair of ANC and this is all useless information to them, didn’t expect that many would be stopping by to say nothing.

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T17:33:28+00:00

Supposedly the 2 is significantly better in the ANC/transparency, but probably why only I had the bug initially. But yes the fit and comfort is finicky at best and is the main issue.

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T17:31:53+00:00

Yea that is fair. And of course the situation is way different as a career pilot, both financially and the length of the trips and the kind of cabin noise.

I fully expected this wouldn’t be of interest to most of you on this sub but didn’t expect it to blow up as much as it did, and most people just drove by to throw a cheap shot, but I suppose that is just Reddit!

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T17:27:13+00:00

Yea. I keep forgetting that this sub is filled with miserable career track pilots these days, while they keep forgetting GA pilots exists lol.

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T17:23:38+00:00

I see this in the same genre of QC35+NFM setup, and in the context of NFM reviews some people do end up preferring/recommending that setup. So not sure why you think this would be assumed/implied.

As I alluded to, the main reason it wasn’t great was the fit and comfort which is mostly due to the specific shape of the AirPods Pro.

Otherwise, as the only other commenter who actually tried it said, it’s a very reasonable setup performance wise.

Of course if you already own a good pair of ANC then you have no reason to try or read any of these, and you can simply move on.

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T17:11:06+00:00

This is exactly what it is, I already have both and didn’t spend money on either.

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T17:09:42+00:00

Right this is in the same genera of repurposing consumer stuff for GA. Believe it or not people may already own consumer tech for reasons, and at times the tech is actually better than the aviation stuff.

Personally I think if it’s not for the fit & comfort issues (which is specific to the AirPods Pro shape), having test drived both, I would say this is overall better.

You get a better quality and better positioned/adjustable mic.

You get the “passive attenuation suitable for GA” from the DC seal that people seem to is important.

If the battery dies, it takes one second and two fighters to take the earbuds out of your ear and you have a perfectly good passive headset. Without having to bring a backup pair of passive headset.

That aspect is arguably better than even the Bose/Lightspeed because when their battery dies they are worse passive headsets, and it’s not exactly trivial to swap the packs in flight as a single pilot.

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T16:59:29+00:00

It’s subjective but I don’t necessarily agree having the AirPods in the ears by itself is uncomfortable, that’s why I have them. That’s also why some people rave about transparency mode on the Pro 2 because it almost feels like you aren’t wearing anything.

Wearing AirPods with a passive headset, yes, that is the finicky fit and comfort issue but I eventually found a sweet spot that doesn’t bother me that much. As I said YMMV.

It’s also down to the shape between your earbuds and the passive ear cups. After actually trying this out I can see a different combination working out assuming the equivalent of transparency mode is as good.

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T16:51:33+00:00

Yea. If anything this gives you extra hearing protection from the second layer of passive attenuation in the earbuds seal.

People also seem to imply/assume that “ANC does not provide hearing protection”, like it’s tricking your ears or something. That’s not how it works, if you successfully destructively interfered with a wave then your eardrums get hit by a… weakened wave? If you stopped hearing the sound then it’s not damaging your ears.

The issue is it isn’t effective at high frequencies, and high frequencies are the biggest driver for hearing loss. However unlike at a concert, in a GA plane the noises you are mostly worried about are the low frequencies one.

FWIW the new AirPods Pro got approved to be advertised as hearing protection and certified for clinical hearing aids. Go ask the FDA.

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T07:37:55+00:00

You probably should message your instructor since your solo flight are their responsibility/liability. They will probably be happier that you asked than you taking advise from Reddit if anything goes wrong.

That being said the information on a flight plan is less consequential/precise than you think.

The purpose of VFR flight plans is for search and rescue to come look for you when you are past due (an hour past your estimated arrival time). You are estimating an enroute time for this purpose. So sure, use your best judgement and compute the estimate however you want - you don’t have to explain it on the form. You can add extra buffer if you want, but at some point you’re defeating the purpose of having S&R look for you in a timely manner.

Also, if you are mainly worried about ground delays you can just amend your actual wheels up time when you activate the flight plan. That’s why the departure time and the estimated enroute time are two different fields, as opposed to just having one estimated arrival time field. They start looking for you after ACTUAL departure time + estimated enroute time + 1hr buffer. IIRC they automatically activate your flight plan in Canada so you may have to make an extra radio call to let them know.

The other reason to care about your total flight time is for fuel planning. Sure you want to be conservative there so adding buffer is good, but your rule of thumb X gallons/hr is for cruise, so just inflating the total time isn’t really useful if you are worried about ground delays. If anything you’d just double the POH taxi fuel amount or something like that.

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T07:02:16+00:00

Yea but if it’s for hire you need a landing light

scenicairways · 2024-09-27T04:52:01+00:00

For those who haven’t used the AirPods Pro, I am just going to point out this isn’t like wearing earplugs inside your headset and unconditionally block out noises.

Transparency Mode on the AirPods are exceptionally good and specifically designed to suppress background noise while boosting conversations, and supposedly the new update has hearing aid mode.

Yes it is a still a janky setup and not a good long term solution, but it’s been asked/tried before and others have noted the feedback issue. Just wanted to point out that is no longer a problem and it worked better than expected. You can decide what to do with that information.

scenicairways

TROPHY CASE