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Silly moment in DA40

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 3:35 pm
by gordsh
Picked up my plane from XU Aviation shop in London plug in 2 Bose headsets (for myself and instructor) do pre-flight,etc and call ground for taxi request. Ground responds telling us that they can hear the carrier signal but no audio. Instructor and I look at each other puzzled and we call ground again, and again and again...same thing...ground responds "who ever is calling we can hear your carrier signal but no audio, please call us on the telephone".

Taxi the plane back to XU and started troubleshooting radios, avionics, etc...no change. After about 30 minutes of troubleshooting we decide to check the headset plugs... Voila..headset plugs were semi crossed, one of his plugged into my jack and one of mine plugged into his. Never felt so silly and due to the always cumbersome headset wire maze every thing just seemed to look plugged in OK. Oh well I can assure you this will never happen again..so much so that the next day I climbed in the back of the plane and colour code labeled the jacks.

Re: Silly moment in DA40

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 3:46 pm
by Rich
Ah, yes. Been there, done that. Come to think of it we were at Tofino, BC at the time. Must be a Canada thing :)

An ongoing problem, though, which will also have to receive the color-coding thing: When my wife decides her headset isn't working and reaches down to adjust her headset and turns mine off. It is a rat's nest there between the seats.

Re: Silly moment in DA40

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 3:55 pm
by gordsh
Yes..."Rats Nest" is a better description for that bundle of wires between the seats.

Re: Silly moment in DA40

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 4:09 pm
by Rich
I just ordered a couple of headset extensions so I can route the headset cords behind the front seats and not have them poke out between them. Thus also safely removing my headset controller from my wife's sphere of influence. :thumbsup:

Re: Silly moment in DA40

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 9:06 pm
by OBucher
I know this also. First thing we thought was „their radio must be broken“ :D

Re: Silly moment in DA40

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 9:13 pm
by Colin
Rich, I would love to do that and often thought about it when I saw passengers hit the plugs getting in and out of the back. Let us know how yours turns out.

Any chance you four right-angle plugs? That was my other fantasy.

And I had my headset swapped with my brother's when we departed Boulder City, announcing on the CTAF. A clue was that another airplane announced FOR us as we took the runway.

Re: Silly moment in DA40

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:23 pm
by Paul
Done it enough times to recognize it now. This also will happen if you're flying solo and something happens to your headset and you just grab the copilots without switching plugs. The temporary quick fix is to reach over and use the other side's PTT button.

Re: Silly moment in DA40

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 2:47 pm
by Lou
Yep, definitely a Canadian thing. Did it on a checkride just a couple of months ago.

Re: Silly moment in DA40

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 3:20 pm
by Rich
This is the extension I ordered - 1 for each of the front seats:

http://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/headse ... -cord.html

I didn't sweat right-angle, as I figure when it mattered it'd be because I had a back-seat passenger or two, in which case the other two cord positions would be coming straight out anyway.

But I didn't look all that hard and they might be out there. In any case, these are fairly inexpensive and we'll see how they work out.

Re: Silly moment in DA40

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:25 pm
by 1911Tex
We have all done it. Use a dot of fingernail polish on pilots 2 male cord plugs with matching color at female connection.