With modern tech being what it is, why do the captain/crew on new airplanes still sound like they’re eating the microphone?
In: Engineering
How much more expensive of a plane ticket are you willing to buy in order to fix this? That microphone is cheap and solid and reliable.
It’s the same reason we’re shoved into tiny little seats like sardines. When push comes to shove we buy the cheapest tickets. If they advertised flights, and slightly more expensive flights that said “crystal clear messages from the captain, we bought a new PA system”, people would buy the cheap flights.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. The gate announcements are the same. Some airports it’s clear as a bell and others you literally cannot make out a single word they are saying…and they just keep talking endlessly into the mic, oblivious that they are wasting their breath. Phoenix Sky Harbor for one example.
Their mics are usually pretty good, but they’re also flexy arm mics, so if the captain isn’t smart about where the mic is in relation to their mouth, it’s going to vary substantially in quality. If you’ve ever used a good flexy arm mic, the difference of an inch can change them from crystal clear and perfect, to om nom cookie monster, or even being completely indistinguishable from background noise.
Because [they are](https://www.ufqaviation.com/products/aviation-headset-microphone-bluetooth-bt-av-mike-2-vs-nflightmic) (third photo) and there’s already a ton of tech in the mic/headset set. There’s a lot of noise that needs to be blocked out and a lot of communication that needs to go through between the pilot/co-pilot, between the pilots and other pilots, and pilots and any other crew on the ground like air traffic controllers. The fact that you can still understand the pilot incredibly clearly while they’re almost literally chewing on their mic is a testament to how good that mic tech already is
No one has mentioned the speakers. They are as few, as cheap and as light as possible to be functional.
I think most of the answers so far are focusing on the wrong thing.
Most pilots will have a relatively modern mic that can deliver good quality. But how many aircraft have upgraded their cabin speakers since they’ve been built?
The system has to be modernized end-to-end to achieve modern quality, but it’s always the tail end public address speakers that are left behind.
Generally they’re doing the PA not though their pilot headset but a hand held microphone / phone that was certified in the 70s and never changed. The thing probably costs $5,000-$2500 and there is no market to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars getting a better one FAA approved.
Oh by the way the avionics (flight instruments/screens) in airline cockpit are 20-50 years old as well, for the most part. A person owning a Cessna 172 (4 seat propeller plane) can install a much better system for $30,000.
Getting new things put into planes is a costly and lengthy procedure. Someone asked why Air Traffic communications sound like garbage and why they don’t just go for modern equipment, and the answer is it has to work all the time, no exceptions.
If a standard “sounds like crap” microphone just works and is reliable, there’s no reason to spend millions of dollars investigating, testing and fitting better equipment, just so the crew saying “ready for takeoff” is a little clearer.
Some of them are decent. Especially on newer planes.
But new technology, especially new tech in a plane that’s 20 years old, is hard. And expensive.
Every single part needs about 30+ sheets of paperwork to be legal. But new technology? That requires way more complicated stuff. Like compliance testing and reliability tests.
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