I've had my tbone headset now for about a year and have been using it extensively. I use it on long range flights with a two pilot crew for up to some 9h sector times, and on short haul with less than 45min, too.
I'll make a little summary of what I've observed and experienced.
- The headset is, no surprise, absolutely comfortable, more than any other headset that I've ever had before. It's super light weight, and since I've been using customized earplugs already previously (with professional filters intended for musicians) the feeling of something in my ear did and does not bother me at all.
- I use it with the wires coming from behind with a little clamp that I attach to my shirt's collar at the back of my neck and ever since the moment I've been using that technique I never had any issue again with "making noises" by touching or banging the cables.
- I have had no problems yet with any of my colleagues complaining about hearing me swallowing or "adjusting any tongue position". I do however turn off the intercom every time I drink something or especially when I eat or sneeze, etc.
- Some colleagues I think are already so deaf that they have to turn up their intercom volume so much to hear me that they look puzzled at me, take off the single headset piece they use for listening to ATC and think they can hear me better that way - instead of using the other earpiece and adjusting ATC and intercom volumes properly. I sometimes even have to revert to the old style of actually switching intercom off altogether and yell at them. By now I'm convinced that a lot of pilots just like yelling at others and being shouted at... Especially those who use the speaker during cruise. I then usually turn down my own headset volume to nearly zero because their speaker is so loud that I use their speaker for listening to ATC. And I hear their speaker through my noise insulated headset and sit further away from that speaker than they do..
.
- Additionally a lot of the other guys actually have problems wearing a headset on both ears (
no joke!) and thus they have to increase the volume so much on their single piece that my ears would probably just pop and burst. And since the volume of the tbone headset's mike is a little lower than other microphones the surrounding cockpit sounds will make it more difficult for those one-ear-guys to understand me. I don't want to force anyone to use something in the flight deck that they don't feel comfortable with, so I often have to revert to the yelling policy again...
- The noise insulation is not as much as I would like it. It really is what they say on their website: you hear everything, just at a lower level (which is considerably lower, anyway). Compared with the Sennheisers which I had before, the illusion of "silence" is unfortunately not as nice with the tbones as with electronic noise cancellation. Having said that it probably mustn't be any more insulation since there is no electronic way for the tbone of carrying voice to the eardrum somehow and more insulation would cause more problems understanding anyone not being on intercom. I do have trouble understanding flight attendants when they come to the cockpit and often have to take out the headset just to hear them. Over time that can be annoying. I've basically come to believe by now that FAs don't care whether they can be understood or not?
If the other pilot is soft spoken and does not want to use the intercom either, it does become annoying, both for him and me. On the other hand this does not become a lot better if I use a standard headset, quite the contrary.
- I used the Sennheiser HMEC45 before which I had bought back in the mid 90s and used extensively and for a long time as well. Compared to the Sennheiser the tbone is far better in comfort on long trips or basically in general. I was tired of having something "on" my ears all the times, especially when wearing sunglasses or reading glasses at night. But the Sennheiser's mike is built so that I could easily use it for PAs to the cabin, I can't do that with the tbone due to the nature of its' microphone's volume being lower and because of the sound that it generates. Passengers would not understand me and if they did I'm afraid they'd think a robot is flying the aircraft and making the PA.
- Clarity to ATC never seems to be an issue. It may sound less loud to them but absolutely clear. A friend of mine is approach controller and he had me on his screen and frequency. He could not identify my voice he said, but was amazed about the clarity of the transmission. I thought that's cool, no one knows it's me and still I can curse everyone else and they even understand it, hehe ...
In general I have to say that I love it and most likely I'll wear it until it breaks and/or until I retire.
I'm still inclined to perhaps one day try the Bose QC15 with that UFlyMike adapter because of my being tired so thoroughly of noise around me and this Bose hifi headset does give the absolutely amazing illusion of silence around you. But I'd have to wear a conventional headset again. At least the QC15 however does sit around the ears and not on them, I know (I will never go for anything like that "on-ear thingy" again, I swear). But it'd be something on my head, on or around my ears again... And as funny as it might sound, presently I often literally do forget that I'm wearing a headset with my tbones. I just press that transmit button and honestly it feels like I talk to them through telepathy... At times I get that weird feeling that just thinking a transmission might already enough... No joking, it really is weird at times. Pleasantly weird, though.
Their customer suport is fantastic and they are very pleasant to deal with. The quality of the product is superb. And if one is really honest about it, what are some 1000$ if you put it in relation to what other stuff most of us buy at times. After all, the headset you like you'll literally wear for thousands of hours, it will preserve your hearing better over time, it is a crucial part of our job. The company provided ones on the aircraft are usually bent, abused, not what one likes. If I keep mine for let's say 5 years and hopefully I will not have problems with it over that time, it will have cost me some 2-3$ per flight, maximum, more likely less than a dollar. I will spend probably about twice to four times that much on coffees before a flight, nearly as much on sunglasses, pens, what have you throughout that time period, nonsense that I buy on layovers and plenty more on beers at expensive hotel bars after duty. Do I ever start thinking whether I should not buy that anymore since I don't really need all of that? Hmmm. The answer is no, I suppose.
And I know one thing for sure: Compared to the many guys next to me that I fly with who use either no headset in cruise or only the company provided stuff, I go home more relaxed, less tired and stressed (noise wears one out, very much so), with better hearing preservation over time (who doesn't dislike nearly deaf people who don't even realize they are...) and even if they do properly use the noise cancelling headsets provided by the company, compared to them I never have a uncomfortable feeling on my head anymore.
Priceless.
I can't recommend enough to get your own headset. And one of the best around definitely is the tbone, no doubt about it.