Hand Mics

[donv]

I had an interesting experience a month or so ago... my boom mic failed. Fortunately, I had just been handed over to tower, and was able to acknowledge using an ident. I tried to use the hand mic, and it did nothing.

So when I got on the ground, I found an avionics guy, and he quickly diagnosed that there was a short in the mic jack in the sidewall, and fixed it. I asked him about the hand mics, and he said that with Garmin installations, those don't work and generally don't do anything.

Anyone know if that is correct? And if they don't do anything, can they just be removed? Or is there some certification reason that they have to be there?

[appleseed]

135.165(f)(1)  requires two microphones.

If you don’t have a handmike, you would need a spare headset

[donv]

Well, first of all I'm not 135.

Secondly, I generally do have a spare headset.

And, I have two Oxygen mask microphones.

[SKYFLYER]

Don, my headsets are ship powered not battery.  If I need to use a hand mic I have to disconnect my headset for it (the mic) to work.  It was something to do with the comm panel.

I have never heard that about the Garmin affecting the hand mic.

[donv]

I suspect it's that the Garmin audio panel doesn't support the hand mics.

[Bruce Byerly]

Now I’m going to have to start checking the hand mics! 

I do not believe they don’t work because of a Garmin audio issue.

[donv]

My avionics guy said that the hand mics should work, even though Garmin doesn't support a hand mic input. He's going to look at it when I come in for the annual.