Originally Posted by
Jabberwocky82
I found you could get a squeal through the comms when your head was outside/doors off and you descended too quickly.
Have you had any negative feedback from the long term use of ANR? I have been told by many people in Defence that they prefer CEP over ANR, however I cannot find anything of substance to support this outside of ANR advertising material.
Never had any squealing at all, however most of my external load flying is doors on these days, with a bubble window. I do heli ski with this setup in the winter and never had any unusual noises or other malfunction even at very high ROD (also doors on obviously).
My hearing is tested annually for workers comp purposes, and is doing fine. There is a lot of misunderstanding regarding how ANR works, I've had people tell me my ears are actually experiencing twice the sound pressure than without any protection and I'll go deaf any minute now. This is of course complete bollocks. The only valid concern I can see, is that ANR can in theory be selective regarding the frequencies that get cancelled, so that you may be exposed to whatever gets through at full volume as there is little passive protection. Counterpoint is that this is true for any hearing protection, and also that bose would've been sued out of existence 30 years ago if their headsets didn't work.