It looks like I'll be flying on a Blackhawk as contractor test personnel in an upcoming test event. Direction on clothing was "comfortable and safe" so we won't be playing "dress up" like the time I was doing the same thing on an Air Force C-130 (where they gave us flight suits, gloves and O2 masks).

Question for you military rotary wing types: I can buy a low-to-high impedance helicopter adapter for my civilian DC ONE-X ANR headset. Worth it/will they let me wear it? Or do you think they'll be making us wear helmets? Or is it a crapshoot, no way to tell?

Depends on what you're doing.

If you're just a passenger, then bring ear foamies and do what they say. It's loud.

If you'll be working with crew, they'll hook you up before.

We always had headsets available for passengers or flight line personnel who needed them.

Former 15T Crew Chief here.
Foam ear plugs are more than enough. Crew chief will brief you before the flight, so no need for any headset or helmet unless they need your input during the flight.

You will get a headset if you need it and ear plugs if you don’t. The head crew chief should hook you up with either one, just look for the guy with the bad mustache that smells like jet fuel.

Wear only natural fibers like cotton, wool, or silk.

NO GORTEX OR POLYESTER!!!!!!!”!

I'll be working with at least two other test personnel. We'll need to communicate with each other. Is it safe to assume they'll have an intercom channel we can yack on without bothering the actual crew, or will we have to bring our own stand-alone intercom box? The latter would be no problem, we've got a bunch of other equipment going on board already.

With respect to wearing only natural fibers in order to be more fire retardant I'm assuming as a civilian it would be culturally inappropriate to bring/wear a Nomex flight suit (which I do still have from the old job)? I'm not sure I actually own any cotton shirts (I have far too much UnderArmour!)

The Nomex flight suit won’t be a problem at all.

There are a couple different options for comms and it depends how your bird is configured. Unless it’s got a C2 console in it, you might be talking over the crew. Try reaching out to the pilot in command and asking these questions, or whoever runs production/flight ops. Aviation units are pretty used to answering these kinds of questions and it’s not like the are dumb ones.

I’d lean away from being your own comms box, but that’s just my gut. Check with the pilot in command*

ETA: served as a crew chief in an Air Assault unit and on a VIP/Command and Control (C2) Blackhawk with a total of ~2 years in Iraq/Afghan crewing.

You don’t want polyester shrinking around your nutsack in a fire.

Just buy some cheap cotton t-shirts and briefs.

If you need your own comms bring them. You never know how many ICS boxes are INOP or ICS cables are even available. In a normal Blackhawk with a crew of four that leaves three hookups for someone else. Always makes me laugh when I see an AMR come down to an Assault unit with the stipulation that we have six headsets available for the pax. Go talk to the CAC for that request.

Thanks for the good gouge, folks.

I'm a commercial helicopter pilot so I know about cotton vs. synthetics, not that that gets the attention it deserves in the sort of flying I'm involved in. No epaulets, no helmets, either.

So nobody will bat an eye if I pull out the old flight suit? I did pull it out, BTW, and thank goodness I don't need to lose any weight

I've confirmed they've got two comm stations dedicated for test personnel. A third will be a nice to have--I will negotiate for that when onsite.

Ask beforehand if they can hook you up with a third headset. Assuming they are flying a crew of 4, they can easily have 4 additional headsets hooked up. I'm currently in a GSAB unit that primarily does VIP and C2, and we only have one aircraft outfitted with the 12 point ICS system. Any other aircraft, best we can do is 4.

OK, that's very good info, thanks! And the connections accept U174 plugs, correct? Because bringing extra low impedance headsets is not a problem if there are places to connect them, we've got that part covered.

Another question: is there a 115VAC outlet in the cabin? Is it 400Hz power?

ask them

What kind of mustache did you sport?

yeah, they're 174 plugs.  but you don't have to bring any if they already have some

Day 2 AAR: fantastic bunch of folks, from management right on down. No fuss, no muss, easy going, installed our stuff quickly and easily. Had lots of good ideas and suggestions. Even moved the seats around where we wanted them. Plenty of ICS jacks, but everyone is on the same channel so there does need to be some discipline. Brand new headsets provided but they are junk: godawful clamps, and absolutely no noise cancelling on the mic. So thankful I brought my DC ONE X. The Pilot USA PA-87 high to low impedance adapter does work, but it sounds very tinny, no base response at all. It still sounds much more intelligible than the supplied headsets, especially since we're flying around with the doors open--the wind noise is killing the guys with the gov. headsets. Flight suit was well received and, as it happens, appropriately comfortable for the weather. Op's and pilots are super accommodating, flying where and how we want, picking us up and dropping us off, and just generally being nice guys