Anyone with experience with ANR and open door - as in long line and vertical reference work?

3top

No problems with my Bose A20 inside a LH050. In my experience it depends how well the ear cups sit and seal in your head - in certain conditions with a poor seal you'll have low frequency feedback (drumming), but if they sit correctly it works door on or off. Easy to adjust with velcro pads.

I've had the Bose in there for about 4 years now and you couldn't pay me to go back to a passive setup.
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NO idea about the Switzerland Helmet....
However I was looking into the Gentex HGU-56 recently (re-issue of helmets in the company)
After some serious research - about 95% of all replies and recommendations come back for the Gallet LM-250 (NOT the 350, but the 250)...
I have no idea who would be the distributor in/for Switzerland.
I do know that Merit Apparel in Augustine, Florida is the only distributor on the planet that has helmets in stock (except the factory) and can assemble yours nealry immediatly.
(They also hav a fantastic reputation for fit and service, most of their customers never see the shop..... It seems they have the "remote fitting" process really dialed in!)

I spent an hour on the phone and they walked me through the whole process.....

HOWEVER - we did not order the helmets yet, so I cannot testify to the actual quality or use experience.

At present I am still using my 28 year old SPH-5 (various refurbishments).

The HGU-56 can be made to fit good, but why bother if the LM-250 can be ordered to fit perfectly....

Cheers,

3top

I found you could get a squeal through the comms when your head was outside/doors off and you descended too quickly.

Have you had any negative feedback from the long term use of ANR? I have been told by many people in Defence that they prefer CEP over ANR, however I cannot find anything of substance to support this outside of ANR advertising material.

Never had any squealing at all, however most of my external load flying is doors on these days, with a bubble window. I do heli ski with this setup in the winter and never had any unusual noises or other malfunction even at very high ROD (also doors on obviously).

My hearing is tested annually for workers comp purposes, and is doing fine. There is a lot of misunderstanding regarding how ANR works, I've had people tell me my ears are actually experiencing twice the sound pressure than without any protection and I'll go deaf any minute now. This is of course complete bollocks. The only valid concern I can see, is that ANR can in theory be selective regarding the frequencies that get cancelled, so that you may be exposed to whatever gets through at full volume as there is little passive protection. Counterpoint is that this is true for any hearing protection, and also that bose would've been sued out of existence 30 years ago if their headsets didn't work.

If you have a big head forget the Gallet 250. Bought one recently my thoughts v Alpha ( my current helmet)

1. I wear a large Alpha ( head measures top end of medium long bottom end of large ) could not getter Gallet to fit so had to sell it on
2. The visor system is really difficult to work while wearing gloves ( do a lot of line work with no doors on in winter )
3. The chin strap system doesnt seem very robust
4. Shell is smaller than the Alpha, although dont have a problem of sticking head outside a 500 with no door ( i m 6 ft 1 )
5 Gallet offer a load of different options
6 Took Gallet 4 months to make one for me, not a bad price twin visor normal headset was £ 1700 here in UK this year