In the Air Force in the '60s and '70s the Instructor Pilot in the back seat would often say "I've got it. Check your Oxygen." The Oxygen Panel was usually on the subpanel on the left side of the cockpit. When your attention was diverted and your eyes inside, they'd snap the stick and forcefully bounce your helmet off the canopy. This was usually followed by the rhetorical question; "What the hell are you...
a. doing?"
b. thinking?"
c. doing in my airplane?"
d. doing in the Air Force?"
I often asked myself d. Anyway, I guess the point is that I can testify that a helmet saved my head, although, like repeated hits in pro ball, the effects can be cumulative. That accounts for a lot. I have a Sierra Engineering AF helmet from that era on the shelf. It looks stone age compared to the modern helmets. It's in good shape except for some spider webbing on the right side (see above.)

Not sure if it's cool to keep this going, but wanted to follow-up on what I'm trying since reading through and posting earlier.
I went with the Protec Bravo half shell (confirmed it does not work with Zulu2) and opted for a Clarity Aloft headset (which BTW seems to do quite well if not better in my Pacer).
I then tried shooter style over the ear protection with it (Howard Leight slim/foldable). Do-able but a little uncomfortable and changes the frequency.
Even put impact resistant goggles on top of everything (Revision Locust which have different lenses and even prescription inserts).
These items are all multipurpose in the sense I can use them for other stuff like biking, climbing, shooting, etc.
I do understand that as one gets more intense/serious in an activity the risks and equipment will change.

Skywaggin,
How poor is the fit with Zulus and the Bravo helmet? Is is something that with a little engineering might be fixable?

Don't the Clarity Aloft Headsets make your ears sore after wearing them for extended periods? I have some pretty high end NC ear buds that I wear when riding moto off road and after 2 hours, I definitely want to take them out.

Fit is beyond poor.... Its totally not doable.

I have had that Protec Bravo for quite awhile. The Zulus will not work with it. I had to go back to my blue plastic Light Speeds with the helmet. And depending if Greg is around or not, on which head set I wear. I also wear the helmet on my West Virginia pipe line route.

Yeah, you would have to cut way up on the ear opening to make it fit.
I was skeptical about the Clarity Aloft like most, but do like them so far. I don't have more than an hour or so at a time yet so can't really comment on the long ride comfort.
Even with the behind the neck piece they seem to work fine with the Bravo helmet which has a behind the neck strap.
Of course using the Clarity type headset, you really have a lot more helmet options.

If a guy does go with a gentex or msa gallet what are the options for an iPod plug? What is the sound quality like?
I have the music plug on my intercom but the sound sucks and is much better through the lightspeeds directly.

Zzz bet you wish you had yours on last week

OregonMaule wrote:Zzz bet you wish you had yours on last week

Ha!!! Shhhh.

Interesting thread fellas. I'm still working up to my off airport endorsement, and recently spoke with my insurance agent about coverage for this type of flying. He said I'm eligible for a discount if I wear an approved helmet when conducting these kind of ops. Might be worth asking your ins. guy about. Could save you some money.

OK...I'll jump in not that anyone respects a newbie...
Been flying commercially for 42 years, started very young...Due to my old man owning and operating a helicopter company with world wide ops.
Wore a helmet only while crop dusting for a few years or when flying with father in a copter...(Chemical Applicator to be politically correct these days) and this thread got me to go in the basement to get it, it is sitting in front of me on the kitchen counter right now covered in stickers, I always wanted the "No Fear" sticker but couldn't get it. I started and operated Aerial Terminator during the Canadian summers as my sched allowed. My chief pilot always approved my leave, figured he was trying to get rid of me...
I am now looking into a Maule with ABW gear for off airport ops based on my ranch in Alberta and this thread really got me thinking about wearing a helmet again.
Now...if I paint the Maule battle grey...they wont laught at me...quite as much...at the airport.

Was looking around at headsets online the other day and came across this:

https://www.pacificcoastavionics.com/pr ... black.aspx

They sell it in white too. Got me to thinking, with an ANR retrofit, maybe an Oregon Aero retrofit as well, and even the CEP retrofit, I might be able to make this into something really good. Bears thinking about.

I won't lie, I feel like Wedge Antilles wearing my helmet.

I had to Google that...

So did I...

At work we've been using these David Clark helmets for 3 years now. We have clear and tinted visors we made from motorcycle visors that snap onto the snaps on the helmets for quick change. All of our mechanics wear them, no comfort issues thus far, not as nice as a headset, but safer. I've worn mine on some long ferry flights, don't notice it at all. I've seen some helicopter pilots wear them all day even, instead of the usual $1500 gallet ect.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740755@N03/8601601087/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740755@N03/8602701418/in/photostream

This thread has made me think several times over the last couple of years, whether I should get a helmet or not. I especially think I need one when I whack into the trailing edge of the wing--those diamond-shaped scars are definitely the sign of a Cessna pilot. Then last Marble trip, I had my head down as I was ducking under the wing, and walked right into the strut--sat me on my keister quicker than anything--would a helmet have helped?

Then I think if I got out of my little airplane wearing a helmet at just about any ramp, would I get voted dork of the year? It's not exactly a fighter, or a military airplane, or anything which usually demands that the pilot wear a helmet.

I had BAS harnesses installed in my airplane soon after I bought her 9 years ago--isn't that enough? Or is it? Hmmmmm.

Cary

Interesting topic.

I do wonder how much of helmet use -- or lack thereof -- is driven by culture, versus how much is driven by safety. For example, I've always worn a helmet while mountain biking, but never while skiing; often while mountaineering, but rarely while sport rock climbing. To me, I can't say that a ski crash is any less dangerous than a mountain biking crash in many instances, or that a mountaineering route necessarily requires a helmet more than a rock climbing route (I've had close calls in both environments). But, while perhaps irresponsibly so for me, I've found that my choice to wear or not wear a helmet has often been driven by tradition: I grew up skiing, back when no one was wearing a helmet unless they were racing. I biked as a kid, but didn't get into any serious mountain biking until I was older, when it was more commonplace to wear a helmet. Same sort of thing with rock climbing: my friends never wore helmets while tooling around at the crag for a day, but often did on mountaineering routes.

So, perhaps some more consideration should be given to the value of helmets for guys who do low and slow flying, particularly in more "risky" terrain. I'm a police officer in the real world, and work a few days each month as a TFO on a police helicopter (Bell 407), and helmets are commonly used in this industry. We mostly use helmets out of concern for bird strikes, since we spend our time circling low in the "bird zone".

I never wore a helmet for fixed-wing flying, but my historical habits in aviation have often kept me more than a couple thousand feet AGL, where I believe bird strikes are less common (though still possible, I suppose -- I've seen birds flying over the summits of Colorado 14'ers in the past).

I already have put more than my two cents in on this thread, but I really want to point out something of a misconception common to this thread. The comparison of other sports helmets to flying head threats. If you come to Flagstaff, perhaps you will meet Clark. He flies a super Cub with 29's on it. He had an unfortunate engine failure on takeoff, which separated his wing and spraying him with fuel about 18 months ago. He is burned over 40% of his body. Had he not been wearing his helmet, he would have no ears, no scalp or face. He can quite clearly recall his visor burning in front of his eyes. He forgot his gloves, so his hands will need even more re-work than has already been done.

We had a forced landing in the NOAA King Air, very survivable. Everybody was killed by flying objects in the cabin. I have never seen a skier or mountain biker burning, although some runs have been described as smoking. The only sport that cares about impact by foreign objects is rock climbing. A helmet is not a bad idea there, as my son's former 4th grade teacher here can illustrate. He now functions on the level of a 10 year old after his unfortunate head/rock incident out at Lake Mary.

So as Lightspeed observed as he picked up the 182 door this morning. There was a helmet on the seat of my 185. In fact I just got one for my wife (34 years of marriage today! yeah!). She protested and said. "I don't want to wear it if it squeezes my head, oh, wait, this is really comfortable." It was kind of like driver's side airbags otherwise. It is the David Clark one, got a deal. However, use of helmets designed for biking will not cut it, nor will ski helmets. They have melting plastics in the construction, pure poison. Again, meet Clark, you can see where his straps where, good skin.

We all have no problem shelling out an extra $5-10,000 for a new car. It is the cost of the safety equipment, airbags, ABS, side impact beams, crumple zones. So what is a few hundred on your brain. So what if you look like a dork. I kind of like being different. While everybody was wearing love beads with Jesus hair and bell bottoms being cool (and looking all alike). I was learning to fly in the military. They are now fat bald leaping gnomes on medicaid with high blood pressure and I'm still flying, playing the dork, gotta love it.

Protect that melon, unlike kidneys we only have one.

Well said, Dogpilot.

The most likely use for a helmet doing what we do is flipping your bird upside down, or maybe a violent pirouette after you clip a hidden log-- mishaps that are much lower energy than the "crash" one normally thinks of with planes. Taking a hard hit to the head on a door post or fuselage tube is enough to really mess you up, enough so that you won't ever qualify for a medical again, or who knows what. I have friends who've suffered that very thing. It doesn't take much force to the dome to kill you. Fire egress and fireproofing, that's getting more serious, and in that case being conscious is definitely the difference between life and death. Harder crashes, well it's probably over with anyway.

No one ever thought I was cool to begin with so my dorky helmet isn't gonna change things. Aviation has a very conservative (by the core sense of the word) and rigid culture, and something like helmet usage won't be quick to catch on.