Arrh winter, time to sort out all your gear for the next epic season. Ed get us underway with a couple of articles about the gear he’s flying with:

For the most part, most hang glider pilots seem to have their gear pretty well sorted, except for their bloody radio set up. Many pilots seem to be perfectly happy to get around the sky with really crappy comms. One local pilot in particular tends to get extremely excited in the air and wants to tell everyone all about it – and all we hear is ‘muffle, muffl, muffle, muffle’ screamed over the radio – I think you get the point. It drives me nuts. For some reason most pilots don’t seem to put much effort into their comms. I guess it’s because they never have to listen to themselves – their crappy comms are always someone else’s problem. I guess this will be true until the day they outland in an area without mobile coverage and no one knows where the hell they landed.

Well during last winter I upgraded my helmet to an Icaro Grid Cut and needed a new radio headset to connect it to my radio. I just happened to have a couple of days off work sick at the time which I spent in bed – and searching the web for the best value headset I could find. The best one I found was the XHH750C – available from ‘ixcessory’ (http://www.ixcessory.com/Merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=I&Product_Code=2WS-HH750C&Category_Code=XHH750C). I’ve now had it for nearly 12 months and this is what I’ve found.

Price

The unit  was the cheapest I could find by a significant margin, priced at just $43.90US for the basic headset and $63.90 US for the 2-way-switcher model (more about that below).

Modular

The headset is very modular and the basic model comes with 4 functional components:

• the helmet fittings (2 speakers and a mic),
• the chest volume/press-to-talk (PTT) switch,
• the radio specific connector,
• and the finger PTT switch

The X2WSRM 2-way-switcher model includes the above as well as a:

• 2 way switch that allows you to connect an iPod into the system so you can listen to music through your helmet during flight. The iPod sound comes through the speakers however when receiving a radio call it cuts out the iPod so you can hear the incoming transmission. There is also an on/off button to mute the iPod during flight for busy times (like take-off and landing) 
  

All of the components can be purchased individually quite cheaply. The kit comes in both full-face and open-faced versions (the open-face version includes a boom mic). The chest PTT has a volume button so that volume can be adjusted in flight. The radio connector (tail) must be specified for your particular radio so if you change radio models a new one to suit your new radio can be purchased (quite cheaply). The kit also includes a choice of 4 remote PTT buttons. I chose the finger PTT, however you can also choose a handlebar PTT, a plunger PTT or a line control PTT. The line control PTT looks very cool and provides access to volume and other functionality on a finger PTT. I didn’t opt for this one as I thought that it might be too ‘fiddley’ and get annoying in flight – having to locate the specific button or hitting the wrong button (in hindsight I wish I’d had a go at it and will probably get it on my next headset).

I have only used the 2 way switcher twice to hook up my iPod Shuffle and it made for two very enjoyable flights out at Lake George listening to music quietly in the background. I did a pretty untidy top landing out there at the end of the first flight (bent upright) which I think having the music on may have contributed to so I’ve been very careful about when I use it ever since. I think it’s best used judiciously – after take-off and not during landing.

Quality

When I first ordered the XHH750C it looked so good and was so cheap that I figured that something had to be wrong with it. After 12 months of use I can say that it is an excellent headset that is well suited to hang gliding. I’ve not had any problems with any of the components. Installation into my helmet was easy and took little more than 10 minutes. I did end up modifying the chest PTT as it had a metal clip that didn’t suit the way I wanted to mount it onto my harness, so I had to cut it off (I have a Moyes Contour harness and I have mounted the chest PTT onto my velcro patch just below the tow point – it is mounted with some permanently mounted elastic cord and velcro glued onto the back of the PTT). The only problem that I’ve had with the system was that the two connectors into the chest PTT (the finger PTT and the helmet connector) both look similar but have different pins so I nearly broke them soon after installation when I tried to join the wrong ones. To be safe you’d be best to paint the matching connectors in unique colours so that it’s impossible to join the wrong ones.

If you have problems with your in flight communications (as judged by feedback from those who have to listen to your static filled ramblings) then take the move and get an XHH750C – it’s a quality, low cost solution.

Safe flying

Ed