Telex Airman 8+ delivers “crystal clear” comms for VASAviation

- VASAviation reviews deluxe headset for commercial and business aviation communications
- Airman 8+ design offers optimal combination of lightweight comfort and superior sound quality
- Excellent Active Noise Reduction (ANR) performance with turbine engine applications
Madrid, Spain, April 2022 – When flying is your life, you need to make sure you have the best equipment to support you. Finding the right headset is an important factor, and Victor Atienza Sanchez has been testing the Telex Airman 8+ in a variety of settings to see where it performs the best.
Sanchez has been a regular in the cockpit since he was six years old and is now a fully qualified commercial pilot. He is also known around the world by his VASAviation handle as an honest voice covering the news and his experiences in the aviation industry. He put the Airman 8+ through its paces across a variety of aircraft and has been impressed with the results.
“I’ve tried the 8+ in a variety of aeroplanes. For example, I first used it in a Piper Seneca twin-engine turbo prop, in which the cockpit is not as sealed as with larger aircraft. Even with the closer proximity of the engines to the cockpit, the ANR worked very well. And, when piloting a private jet with the engines farther towards the tail, the ANR achieved perfect results.”

Even with the closer proximity of the engines to the cockpit, the ANR worked very well.
Adding to the overall efficiency of its design, the Airman 8+ requires no batteries for ANR – reducing waste and operating costs – yet it achieves noise reduction performance approaching that of leading battery-powered ANR headsets for commercial and business aviation. Both the dual PJ and single XLR5 connector versions rely solely on the cockpit power supply to power the ANR. ANR helps to significantly reduce pilot fatigue and improve audio intelligibility for in-flight communications; Airman 8+ ANR is specifically tuned to reduce intrusive lower frequency wind noise in the cockpit. An acoustic limiter protects the user’s ears against sudden increases in sound level.
Besides the ANR, there have been plenty of other elements that have impressed Sanchez. “The ear cups on the Airman 8+ fit perfectly on the head which makes it comfortable. And then there was the extra nice touch of the additional clip for the cable which other headsets don’t have, and it works perfectly. It keeps the cable out of the way so it doesn’t interfere with my functions in the cockpit.”
With the role that communications play in the air, it will always be sound quality that is the most important element. “I think the sound quality is very good – when you activate the active noise reduction, it’s crystal clear,” states Sanchez. “Of course, this all depends on the type of aircraft and the type of equipment that the aircraft has because not all intercoms are the same, neither are the radios or transmitters. But for the aircraft I’ve tried, it’s been crystal clear on most of them.”
The Airman 8+ has impressed Sanchez enough to recommend the headset to the 445,000 VASAviation followers. Additionally, he has also given it his personal recommendation to friends and colleagues. “I have already recommended it to other pilots. We’re using two of them in the cockpit; one of them is mine, I unplug it and take it with me, and the other is always in the cockpit with my captain for him to use. I have also recommended it to a good friend who is now doing air ambulance flights on a twin-engine prop.”
The Airman 8+ is FAA TSO-C139a approved, EASA compliant, and meets RTCA DO-160G and DO-214A standards.
Models:
AIRMAN8P-0210 – double-sided ANR headset, 2PJ, 600 ohms
AIRMAN8P-0211 – double-sided ANR headset, XLR5, 600 ohms