Small anecdote from my PPL training. I started with a Zulu, it was my first headset. During my first cross country solo, the batteries ran empty. Being very much under stress, I did not notice the warning signal so suddenly the electronics went off and everything sounded much louder and very different. In that moment, I was fully convinced that the engine is broken and I am going to crash. I had never before experienced the sound of the airplane without my ANC headset.
With the poor passive audio of the Zulu, I had a very hard time communicating with ATC (home base EDDS is very busy with a control zone). Of course I was prepared and had fresh batteries but changing them during my first real solo flight in a Cessna 150 without autopilot was beyond my abilities.
Luckily I knew about the aviate-navigate-fiddle-with-headset rule. Would have been interesting to know if the authorities would have determined the reason in their crash investigation
