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Comment by ahoka | Hacker News Reader

If anyone wonders this is how it looks like: https://youtu.be/-X01uY0bJs0?t=48

And sounds?

The trim wheels moving also makes a sound?

Yes. The ratcheting sound is deliberate, so the pilots don't need to see the wheels spin to know the trim is running. Also note that there's a white stripe on the wheel so it's easy to see it is running.

Someone else in the thread said newer models don't make a sound.

You'll note in that video, the left-hand pilot has a headset on, presumably the right-hand pilot does too. Headsets are seen in other videos [1] of the cockpit.

So even if the spinning trim wheels make noise, they may not have heard it.

(My google image search shows some pilots wearing two-ear headsets, some wearing one-ear headsets, some wearing two-ear headsets with side not on their ear, and some not wearing headsets. But some of those are pilots posing for photos, and presumably pilots don't let people visit the cockpit during critical stages of the flight)

[1] https://youtu.be/wz2Q3COfveg?t=409

I don't understand do you think they're listening to music or something?

Having a headset on doesn't stop you hearing noises in a cockpit. How did you think all the other verbal alarms and callouts worked if they can't hear anything?

I was thinking the same thing.

I wear earplugs all day in a metal fabrication workshop.

The earplugs certainly don’t prevent you from hearing anything.

Those all go into the headset as well AFAIK. Many pilots use noise cancelling headphones.

If the deliberate clack of the trim wheel also goes into the headphones then why are we having a discussion about whether headphones stopped them hearing the deliberate clack of the trimwheel?

My guess is the electronic beeps and boops could be piped into the headsets, but the mechanical clack-clack of the trim wheel is not.

Noise cancelling headphones would still let you something clicking right in front of you. In fact, open-back noise cancelling headphones would be better to wear than something that just muffles the noise if you need to hear your environment but just want to cut out the hum of the engines.

I'd imagine that that would be less common (or at least, they would use headphones with a lesser effect) with commercial jets. They're far enough from the engines that the noise should be pretty tollerable.

From the videos I have seen in cockpit it does seem to make a sound as it rolls.

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