Doesn’t seem to be a common choice, but I decided to go with the Clarity Aloft Classic, and I absolutely love it. The only other headset I’ve used is a David Clark, so I don’t have a lot to compare it to, but the Clarity Aloft is just SO comfortable and indeed the audio clarity seems to be great. Also, while it doesn’t have electronic noise cancellation, the in-ear buds really block out sound very well. In fact, there have been a couple times where the stall horn is honestly kind of hard to hear… which I know is not really a good thing, but the point is that they really seem to have pretty good physical noise cancellation. And they are so light, and don’t make your ears all sweaty during summer cross-countries like my DCs definitely did.
Do any airline pilots use these? They do have a TSO’d version which I am planning on upgrading to when I finally have a job that requires it…
Yeah that makes sense, I’m sure the earbuds would drive some people crazy. I use my Apple earbuds essentially nonstop so I have no problems at all with earbud style, and so far have never felt the urge to take out my CA earbuds while flying. But its good to hear that some people do use them. I wasn’t sure if they were like, looked down on or something. I’ll probably try a Bose one day for comparisons sake but so far the CA is a good fit for me.
I only know of a couple pilots that use Clarity Alofts. One pilot had a custom earbud molded. I think that’s what I would do if I had them. I’m with Adam though. I don’t like in ear anything. I even have a hard time with AirPods.
I flew with a captain last week that has the Bose noise cancelling earbuds… I was intrigued by them. They are definitely smaller, so easier to pack and lighter on the head, but I’m not sure I’d like them in my ears for hours at a time either.
On a delegate note, Last rotation we had a trip out to Puerto Rico and out over the Atlantic the radio calls were few and far between so we took advantage of the speaker system in the cockpit and the hand held mic if needed and got to take our headsets off for a bit. That was definitely nice…
My house is on a very busy street in Long Beach so I literally have to wear earplugs to sleep at night. So… yeah in-ear is absolutely no problem for me haha
I’ve been looking at the Bose ProFlight Series 2 recently, but I think I would have to get the custom ear molds and I don’t know how well they’d work with a piston engine/non-pressurized cabin. When I was officiating soccer, I always disliked the mic system because the earpiece was ‘standard’ and never “conformed” well to my ear. Any thoughts on getting a custom mold? How does the Clarity Alofts feel around the outside of the ear?
The over-ear part is a slightly rubberized, stiff metal. It is not flexible at all or designed to be adjusted from what I can tell. To me it feels akin to wearing sunglasses. I put the CA on, then sunglasses rest nicely on top of it. The in-ear part is foam. You roll it between your fingers to compress it and then put into ear canal where it expands. Feels exactly like the soft foam earplugs you buy at Walgreens. Comes with three different sizes of foam tip.
If in-ear anything tends to bother you, it would probably bother you.
Thanks for sharing this picture, I don’t mind in-ear things since I do have my earbuds for my Apple devices. Maybe I’ll have to check a ProFlight Series 2 out eventually later in the year if Bose runs a special on Aviation Headsets.
