Listening to the Engine
This is prompted by Fallen Eagle's posting on the Music thread. Eagle makes the (to my mind) very valid point that you should be listening to the engine when you fly, which accords with my old instructor's dictum that in flying you should use all of your senses except taste (NB disabling the sense of taste is what allows you to drink aviation coffee, wear large brown shades with nasty gold wire frames, travel in aircraft painted 1970s puce etc, so it comes in pretty handy).
This leads me to ask about views on active noise reducing headsets. I steer clear of them because I want to be able to hear the engine going bogggler boggler cough cough cough, whilst I look with keen and Class II medically approved eyes at the con rods, CD racking systems etc. flying out of the cowling (drat, must remember to put in some of that gloopy brown stuff next time). What do the rest of you think?