Using Civvy (2 plug) headset in military (1 plug) aircraft

[RTN11]

I've lately been flying a grob which has annoying radios and only a single plug headset. Does anyone know if the conversion cables available on the likes of Transair are any good to get a set of David Clarke's to work with this setup? I don't really want to have to buy another headset, but I've never liked using the club ones worn by every punter coming through the door.

[EddieHeli]

Yep, they work, but you need to know which type you need as there are two different ones, American and Nato.
The plugs look the same but are wired up differently.

[Timmy44]

If they're the Grobs at Tayside, then it's a UK-Nato one; I have a US military single pin headset and a conversion cable to the UK-Nato plug.

I'm told the other issue is the impedence- my instructor has one of the conversion cables to adapt his twin pin headset for use in the Grob, but it still doesn't work.

[Mark 1]

Often the 4-pole NATO plugs are associated with dynamic mic.s. If that's the case you'll also need an impedance matching circuit added.
Adams' used to do their headset matching unit with a NATO plug going out to standard twin sockets.
If all else fails, get this.

[J.A.F.O.]

RTN

I've got one that I'm not using right now, PM me if you'd like to borrow it to try out before you decide.

[RTN11]

Thanks for the advice guys. I hear the adapter alone isn't any good, that adams thing does look good, but for the price I could just buy a Peltour headset.

[Grob Queen]

RTN11

Which Grob do you fly? Because our 115As will take twin plug david clark headsets. In fact our old club headsets are David clark and I am currently using my mates David Clark (more upmarket model) and that works fine, very clear. The Club have just bought Sennheiser (if thats how you spell it!) to use in the Grobs too and they are crap - there is so much back noise, I could hardly hear my instructor, let alone ATC!