Your Flight Helmet (slightly OT?)

[Randy Haskin]

Instead of hijacking the other thread about helmet use in warbird flying, here's a new thread...

I'm interested in seeing what flight gear (helmets in particular) some of the rest of you fly with (like the one you were describing, Steve P).

I'll start out....

On the left is my custom-painted HGU-55/P. This is actually the same helmet I was initially issued in USAF pilot training for T-37s, and was then later replaced when I got to the F-15E. I saved it from destruction (isn't it great how the military "de-militarizes" things when they're no longer needed??) with a 6-pack of beer to the life support shop technicians. I'm in the process of swapping over to civilian radio compliant earcups and mic. Eventually this will be my civilian flying and *hopefully* warbird flying equipment.

On the right is my F-15E setup, the HGU-55/CE. This is the same rig I flew in combat over Iraq in '03 during the opening shots of Iraqi Freedom. It has a dual-visor rig (smoked and amber visors) and an MBU-20/P oxygen mask for use with the COMBAT EDGE setup in the F-15E. This particular helmet and mask is now retired (aside from obvious sentimental valuse to me) since my current jet, the T-38C, does not use COMBAT EDGE...



EDIT: Just to keep up with Steve's cool "there I was" shot below, here's my helmet gear in action, too:

Last edited by Randy Haskin on Thu Jan 06, 2005 7:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[srpatterson]

Here are my helmets. I wear the HGU-33 with the MBU-12/P in the L-39. The Campbell helmet has what looks like an oxygen mask, but is just a microphone. This is done for high noise environments (like a Sea Fury), although the jury is still out on this, as I've only used it a few times. I also have a boom mic that fits on this helmet.





BTW, Thanks Setter for telling me how to post photos on WIX!

[JDK]

Hi Steve,
Does the Campbell helmet come with the beer bottle inside? I know you get a white Mereno wool scarf with each order... Who says the NZers misuse sheep.
Cheers

[srpatterson]

OK, let's pick on Steve time.

1. That's not a beer bottle, it one of my wife's flower vases (don't tell her, though).

2. The white wool scarf was claimed by Mrs. Patterson the minute I opened the box from New Zealand. A most excellent product.

3. Sorry for the "I Love Me" shot, Randy. I was just so excited about finally figuring out how to post photos. It's still a pain in the @ss compared to Flypast.

BTW, I have a friend in Dallas, now an AA Captain, who used to fly the F-15E and instruct on T-38s, Duane "Slam" Smith.

[Ollie]

Here's my HGU-55 with the O2 clips with the mic attached to them. I have only a single visor fitted, but the clear one is in my bag and I put it on at night and when the weather is cloudy.

And of course, that thing I'm sitting on is a Focke-Wulf Fw 149D!





Inside the said Focke-Wulf...



And inside the same plane with the clear visor this time...

[Randy Haskin]

Sorry for the "I Love Me" shot, Randy. I was just so excited about finally figuring out how to post photos.

Actually, I think it's a rather cool shot. I really love your helmet there...is it painted up in the "Jolley Rogers" scheme? It looks just like the ones the VF-84 pilots were wearing in the movie "The Final Countdown". Ever since I saw that flick as a kid I have thought that helmet with that scheme was way cool. If it weren't for the fact that the plastic hardshell visor cover makes it a lot tougher to see 'up', I'd probably get one myself.

As for my picture...well, ya know, it's always about 'keeping up with the Joneses', or in this case, the Pattersons!

BTW, I have a friend in Dallas, now an AA Captain, who used to fly the F-15E and instruct on T-38s, Duane "Slam" Smith.

I definitely recognize the name, but I don't know him personally. Before my time, I'm afraid, as I've seen his name engraved on the bar of my past squadron!!

[srpatterson]

My T-28B was painted in VF-84 colors when I bought it, so I got a helmet to match. I've just never had it repainted.

As for Slam, I'll tell him "Hi" next time I see him.

"...One of the old guys". darn kids.

[Buzzie]

Here are my helmets. I wear the HGU-33 with the MBU-12/P in the L-39. The Campbell helmet has what looks like an oxygen mask, but is just a microphone. This is done for high noise environments (like a Sea Fury), although the jury is still out on this, as I've only used it a few times. I also have a boom mic that fits on this helmet.





BTW, Thanks Setter for telling me how to post photos on WIX!

Even though this is an old topic, I think you will be entertained to know that a pretender--pretending to be an F/A-18 pilot is using your helmet as a avatar. It doesn't know it doesn't have an oxygen mask!

[Ken]

I have been happy with my stock USAF HGU-55 (don't recall the suffix) issued around 2006; like you Randy, a unit issue piece that allowed my 1991 UPT -55 to sit on a book shelf.

I left the electronics alone and use a jack & impedance converter (much like the PA-88 adapter seen at pilotshop.com) for times when I need GA compatibility. Note: it already had a GI square boom mic with integral boom/mask mic switch since I was a C-130 guy.

Last year I did send it to cepusa.com for a CEP install in Enterprise, AL. The added hearing protection and ability to clearly hear the radios is something else. There may be better options out there, but for the price and performance I think it's great. I also like the fact that, if the CEP is not plugged in, the helmet functions as if it were never modified.

Overall a fairly vanilla, but successful rig.

Ken

[Tulio]

As a counterbalance to those neat, cool helmets, here are mine: Non-operative, ugly, well used and with little future...

The red and white, I have had since the mid-1970s. The others, I have inherited.

Saludos,


Tulio

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[Tulio]

And, the last image.


Tulio

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[Saville]

I use a Korean Era P3 which I refurbished, mounted modern speakers, microphone and wire loom in. I use it when flying acro and sometimes in formation flying:

[AHancock51]

I prefer the minimalist cloth model, myself...