Cary wrote:Well, I'd say Tiger lost a lot of business as folks read M3X's pirep. I think I'll start a new thread on businesses that I will do business with again, because they know how to treat their customers.

Cary

Good idea. I have gotten so many great referrals from folks on this forum, and had such wonderful experiences with vendors mentioned here, this was a real outlier. I debated for a long time even sharing my experience as the last thing I want to do is throw shade on the many honorable folks doing business. For me the final straw was seeing I was not the only one having a bad experience. I think a key finding for me is not trusting status updates: if something is delayed, that happens in our world. I am fine with delays. Just tell me the truth and I will wait.

I await your new thread as I have virtually all good experiences with the vendors around here and would like to share them to counterweight this poor one.

-M3X

scottnt wrote:
M3X, thanks for the PIREP on Tiger Performance. Glad to hear you like the helmet. As far as I can see they're the only ones putting the Bose A20 in a helmet. Does anyone know of any other companies that install Bose headsets in Gallet Helmets?

I am absolutely sold on the helmet. Rob's posting above was what got me off the fence, and everything he said about the helmet was right on the money. It is not inexpensive, but my daughter is grown and I had the luxury of buying a professional helmet for personal flying. I have a lifetime collection of motorcycle helmets and choosing them was about as personal as choosing underwear. All my friends and I had every kind of helmet and none of us would have traded.

I do want to call out the professionals that wear a helmet for a living and offer their impressions here: I appreciate you taking the time and want to thank you for it. Rob, and many others, having owned more than one, will always offer more than us amateurs that will only buy one helmet in our lifetime.

Good question on the Bose install: anyone else have any insight on that? Taking apart a Bose headset and installing in a helmet involves advanced avionics chops, I wonder if that is the direction to look? When I went with the Bose option I had to sign a statement I understood Bose would not warranty the rig, so either way I am on my own: if I ever have issues with my audio I will have to just pay for service without warranty.

-M3X

FWIW, if I were doing it, I think I'd go the Headsets Inc. route. They provide ANR conversion kits for both headsets and helmets. I have been very satisfied with the HI conversion kit I installed in one of my DC 10-13.4 headsets. It has worked well for several years. I don't know what their warranty or out-of-warranty service is, because I haven't had to use it, but they were willing to talk with me on the phone when I had questions during the installation.

Cary

Has anyone had any experience with the folds at Helicopterhelmets.com? Looks like they do a Bose installation in their EVO 252 helmet that might fit on my fat head.

Got a surprise in the mail yesterday. The new Lightspeed Zulu helmet kit. As I understand it, it is only available via authorized installers, Helicopter Helmet, Tiger, maybe Merritt?


Sorry for the terrible pics, I will try and revisit that ...

Mine is a plug and play package that Tiger put together for me, to replace an existing HSI set up in one of my helmets. Inspite of the negative reviews, my experiences with Tiger have always been good. But good in a 'getting an engine from Lycon' way....
The best part of dealing with Tiger for me has been that they really don't seem to care if what you want is one off, or against mainstream conventional wisdom, if that's the way you want it, that's the way they'll build it. And it will look professional when they're done, none of the cheap Chinese electrical tape that I've seen in other $3K dollar helmets As an example, I told them the only way I'd entertain the notion of trying a Zulu set up would be if I could still use my HSI panel power. To compound things, I fly both dual GA equipped panels, and single helicopter panels.... No problem! they just set me up with a main cord / pig tail setup like my current helmets have complete with bail out plugs, but in this case the pigtails have Zulu controllers on them! How cool is that! here is a Zulu to HSI Panel power / GA pigtail.



So far the only thing I see that I'm not too crazy about is the bail out plug. In the past the standard bailout plug was only useable in non ANR set ups or with HSI ANR. Anything with bluetooth just had too many conductors to work. Lightspeeds have a bomb proof bail out plug. The quality surpasses the standard bailout plug by a mile, but that just may prove to be a fatal flaw... it locks! the whole point in a bail out plug is to be able to depart the airplane in a hurry without unplugging your helmet (it is a single plug at the nape of the helmet that will come loose in the even of an expedited departure. IMHO a locking bailout just negates that whole theory. Time will tell how this piece works out;



Anyways... I'll probably put this set in this weekend and give it a whirl... I'll post a follow up for anyone interested!

Take care, Rob

I was probably the guy from Supercub.org that had the bad experience with Tiger. I would not buy another helmet from them simply because they take your money first and deliver the product only after you have made dozens of calls and wasted hours of time with them. I finally had to tell them if I did not have delivery tracking from shipper by the end of the day I was calling the credit card company. That finally got my helmet coming.

Tiger Performance at a snails pace is what I call them.

I too purchased my Gallet with the Bose A20 from Tiger Performance. It did take a couple of months to get the helmet delivered, but I'm happy with the build quality. It's a great helmet.