Drone Pilots Need New Headgear

Why is it we see UAS flyers whom are in sound proofed containers wearing aviation grade isolation headphones? We can clearly see in this picture here that this particular operator needs to remove one of his muffs to properly interact with his colleague not 5ft away in the room.



I think it's time for some open ear upgrades.

not to be that guy, but what are done pilots? You should at least spell check before posting a thread, especially the title. Also, what are UAS fliers? Curious because I was in the AF for a time, and never heard of these. And really, we don't know what is truly going on in this picture. It could be anything, and I highly doubt what you're thinking it is.

a reply to: gunshooter

thanks for being that guy. sp noted.

Dude, edit your OP title while you can. Or just copy mine and paste it to your title.
Drone Pilots Need New Head Gear.
But then I don't know, maybe you meant that these pilots were done with their sortie and needed new head gear to listen to their ipod

a reply to: aholic
I would hazard a guess that the reason they are wearing David Clark's is because they need to hear other manned aircraft as well as air support requests, ATC, JTAC's etc. And these can be hard to understand unless a speaker is up close to your ear with ambient noise isolated out like the other guys in the room talking.

LEE.

a reply to: aholic

They wear them because when you're in a room full of people who are all talking and you need to pay attention to what your particular UAV is doing, ambient noise doesn't help.

It ain't broke, so don't fix it.

Why use anything else? I'm sure the government has literally thousands of those headsets on hand. Convenient, cheap, and no one complaining that $X was spent on researching, developing, and deploying a new headset.

How about a set of these? Works in a load NFL stadium.

Whoa isn't the whole idea of a drone that it's unmanned? Meaning no pilot?

You think that is the inside of a drone? Looks like an office to me. Flat walls and right angles and all. Just how well researched is this thread content?



a reply to: aholic

a reply to: AutumnWitch657

In the first sentence the op had said "in sound proofed containers..." I don't think the op believes these drone operators are in a drone.

To the op;
The pic you provided doesn't really say much there is no context here maybe the airmen removed his headset because nothing was going on yet and he was explaining to the people taking the pictures what's going on or telling them to gtfo or something. All that equipment looks old to me then again it also looks super durable as well.

a reply to: Brotherman

You've been spoiled by the movies and tv shows. That's about as fancy as they get.

a reply to: Brotherman
The title of the thread says drone pilots. I can read.

a reply to: AutumnWitch657

All drones have pilots, or, if you're simply arguing semantics, operators. While in some models there is a good level of autonomy, there is still a human there to watch over.

The bigger drones (ie Predators) have pilots stationed in small storage containers in a big, desert facility out west as well as at bases around the world. They link to the drones through satellites and other aircraft.

The smaller drones (ie Ravens) have pilots on the ground not so far away. Sometimes just one person piloting, but usually a team of two or three for the whole operation. They link to the drones directly or through another aircraft.

But regardless of size, regardless of mission, regardless of distance, there is still a person, a pilot, at the controls.

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

I've seen better set ups in my days in the USMC but yeah tv does glory them up quite a bit there's a big difference between Mcdill and in the field if ya catch my drift

a reply to: aholic

They have those because those headsets are the ones used by the vast majority of the USAF. The drone operators either got them really cheap or had some in storage that they took.

I wouldn't be surprised if the guy on the right has his left muff off his ear to talk with a supervisor or mission commander standing behind him. I don't know if he's doing it to communicate with the pilot- I'd be surprised if the intercom feature wasn't enabled.

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

The official USAF designation for drones is Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA). The career field code title is Remotely Piloted Aircraft Pilot. Even with semantics, they are still referred to as pilots.

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid
No drones have pilots. The whole idea behind drones is that they are unmanned. There is no one in them.
Of course someone is controlling them. You didn't think I thought they were just flying around uncontrolled did you?
My son has a radio controlled plane. A nice one. He controls it from the ground. In no way does anyone consider him a pilot.

Those guys probably are pilots. Meaning they can fly a plane...from inside the plane. If someone is a pilot they are a pilot even when they're on the ground. Just like a doctor is still a doctor even when he's at home watching tv on Sunday night.

a reply to: justwanttofly

a reply to: AutumnWitch657

Not necessarily. Some drone operators are taken from manned airplanes and told to "fly a drone" so to speak, while some are trained as drone operators from day 1 with relatively no training as traditional pilots.