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Carbon Monoxide Monitoring & Custom Hearing Profiles
Of these two new safety features, I found the most important was CO monitoring. When I’m not flying Ci- tationJets, I am usually in our fam- ily’s Cessna Turbo 206 or one of the many club Cessna 172s at Plus One Flyers. Older single-engine pistons are notorious for leaky exhaust pipes sending poisonous CO into the cabin. Odorless CO gas can quickly impair pilots with headaches, drowsiness, and possible death.
I tested the headset in a few pis- ton aircraft and, fortunately, did not discover any hidden CO leaks like other Delta Zulu owners have found. And I didn’t have the opportunity to test this safety feature in an actual CO environment, so I can’t comment on its efficacy. But with its iOS app, pilots can program the controller’s smart button to take CO readings to help monitor levels and provide peace of mind.
The other safety feature, custom noise level profiles, didn’t make much of a difference in my experience with the product. Lightspeed says that the hearing test and setup helped users identify hearing issues, and they’ve found the feature to help, but I didn’t see any marked difference with it on
or off. I also found it frustrating that I had to retake the hearing test after I went back to adjust a high-frequency level. However, I can see how, in the future, after a few thousand hours of flight time and idle jet engines and APUs blasting on tarmacs, I could benefit more from this feature.
Best New Feature:
Rechargeable Battery Pack
The new feature that I appreci- ate the most is the lithium-ion re- chargeable battery pack. No longer will you need spare AA batteries when your battery dwindles; connect the Universal Accessory Connector (UAC) plug and recharge from your plane’s power via a USB-A port. Note that you must purchase an additional cable if you want to go UAC-to-USB-C.
Lightspeed proudly boasts that Delta Zulu “is the first headset to adopt the UAC plug.” They will likely be the last. Why so gruff? Because in an age of attempting to consolidate plug types, Lightspeed requires us to use a non-ubiquitous plug to re- charge our headset battery. So, now that means three cables in the flight deck to handle my iPhone (Light- ning), iPad (USB-C), and now one for the Delta Zulus (UAC).
Other pilots have griped about this issue, and I agree with them. Switching from a UAC plug to USB-C
is wise for future versions (and yes, certification costs may prevent that from happening soon).
If you wish to forgo the recharge- able battery pack, Lightspeed includes a battery pack cartridge for those who would rather rely on two AAs to power their headset’s ANR, safety features and Bluetooth functionality.
An App — But for Only Half of Us
Another new feature is the Lightspeed App, but currently only for iOS users. The ANR, CO monitor- ing and Bluetooth work independent- ly of the app, but you won’t be able to use the HearingEQityTM hearing test and profiles, nor will features like safety metrics or audio recordings and playback be available.
If you don’t own an Apple iOS de- vice, and you do wish to customize the hearing test for your unique inner ear architecture, you’ll need to ask an iPhone buddy to download the app for you and borrow it for about 10 minutes as you pair, setup, and run the audio test.
As an iPhone user, I could use all the available features of the Light- speed App as of this test. The audio recording function was a big draw for me since we record lots of videos; capturing quality audio is impor- tant and sometimes frustrating. The
6 • TWIN & TURBINE / June 2023