ANR headsets used on A320 with unpowered XLR socket? EasyJet?

[Boomerang]

Hi guys,

wondering if if anyone has experience with the following and can advise what their company has done so my airline can hopefully learn from others experience rather than try to reinvent the wheel. (Especially since Sennheiser has ceased production)

Our airline has just banned all pilot personal headsets, including those on the Airbus list.

their concern is that some personal headsets are not onlynot Airbus approved, but may not be compatible (speaker impedance, excessive noise cancelling blocking master warning etc) The TSO alone does not cover these items.

going forward, they have shown willingness to approve certain headsets if it is shown they are compliant, but it’s up to the pilots (like me to show them)

Does anyone have experience with a battery powered ANR headset which is being used on the A320 which is compliant with Airbus requirements? If so what headset? What operator?
Does anyone have experience with a battery powered ANR headset which is being used on the A320 which is unknown to be compliant with Airbus requirements? If so what headset and operator?

Basically I am trying to gather information to push the case for our operator to follow suit so pilots can continue to look after their own hearing (and flight safety) with superior headsets rather than the 1980s Walkman headsets approved by our lazy aircraft manufacturer, Yes you Airbus!

thanks in advance, and feel free to PM me.

[Fursty Ferret]

BA have been using battery powered Sennheiser ANR headsets for years on the retro Airbusses they acquired from BMI. I think they're all the HMEC 26, but in use they were frustrating (not sure if this has been fixed since it's been a long time since I was flying the Airbus for BA) because it was difficult to balance out VHF1, VHF2, and the intercom. Having said that, the same thing often happened with the headsets supplied with ship's power. Apparently they've changed manufacturers but no idea if this solved the problem.

As far as I know, the entire BA fleet uses ANR headsets.

[Denti]

Have been using the Bose QC 15 with a uflymike TSO version on the A320, as well as the A20 and the ProFlight. The companies i did and do fly for never had a problem with that, in fact the current one even has a cooperation with Bose for both the A20 and ProFlight at a significant rebate and even gives them out as prizes at internal events. All of those are battery powered, on unpowered XLR sockets, well, in the last airline it was the old style 2 pin socket, but that worked just as well.

[Max Angle]

BA are now transitioning to the David Clark ANR headset, quite a few installed already and I think they are great, big improvement on the Sennheiser, very comfortable and very effective.

https://store.davidclark.com/dc-pro-x2-series

[dirk85]

easyJet recently made an agreement with Bose to offer a discount to its pilots in order to buy the A20 or the new in ear thingy whose name I don't remember, which makes me think they are satisfied they meet all the requirements.

[Ollie Onion]

The thing you are forgetting about your operator is that they have a history of being totally inflexible when it comes to manual/policy interpretation. There is no good reason for them to have banned personal headsets, they are just taking their interpretation of the Airbus Authorised headsets to the ultimate interpretation despite people successfully using heir own headsets for years. Having said that I always have found it a pain in the arse when flying with people who have the uFly mike as it seems to get bad interference when flying near heavy rain and it does something weird to my ‘sidetone’.