Episode 98

SPC098 [CS] Hit Record — How to Record Your Cockpit Audio

How do you record your flight lessons? Nick, a listener in Houston, asked me the same question I got in 2009, so I flew with six recorders running at once, then tested five cables on the ground to find out what actually works in 2026.

We start with why it matters: in the moment you hear maybe a quarter of what your instructor says, and listening back is one of the best debrief tools there is. Then the options: a recording headset like the Lightspeed Delta Zulu, the classic splitter cable into a recorder, 32-bit float recorders like the DJI Mic 2 and Insta360 Mic Pro, a USB-C cable straight into your phone, and recording into a camera. Along the way you'll hear what clipping sounds like, why 32-bit float still isn't foolproof, and how much the cable itself matters.

Then the real question: what do you want the recording for? Clean panel audio is perfect for a transcript but sounds sterile, so we also cover a lav mic in your ear cup and recording two tracks for a natural cockpit sound.

There's a lot of "listen to this, now this" in this one. If your podcast app shows chapter art, the labels are on screen. The full video is at https://studentpilotcast.com/98.

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Links:

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for the student and only for the situation that they happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2026, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams

Transcript
Bill:

Bill Williams here for Student Pilot Cast.

Bill:

I just got done flying and I wanted to, uh, take care of my f-

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most frequently asked question.

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More often, uh, than any other question I get asked how do

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I record my cockpit audio?

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So I'm gonna go ahead and cover that today and show you exactly how I do it.

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Well, that was me 17 years ago.

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back then, I had a lot less gray hair, different airport, different

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airplane, different everything, and I had a cable that I was using

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that I bought from a company that maybe doesn't even exist anymore.

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I'm not that sure.

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But recently, Nick, a listener from Houston, him, he and his son are

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gonna be starting training soon, and asked me this same question,

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and I still get asked this a lot.

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So thought I'd better update this.

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Not a lot of things have changed, but we do have some more

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options and some more equipment.

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So we're gonna cover how you record audio in an airplane in

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episode 98 of the Student Pilot

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Cast.

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Welcome back to the Student Pilot Cast.

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I'm Bill.

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Today's episode jumped the line, and I wanna tell you why.

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Here's the voicemail I got recently

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Hey, Bill, this is Nick calling you all the way from Houston, Texas, and I am

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starting my PPL, uh, journey here as well.

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So I'm started way back at episode one, and I'm just re-religiously just listening

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to each and every one of your episodes back to back as I drive to and from work.

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But like I said, I'm starting my PPL, uh, with my flight school that I've chosen

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using some of your, uh, ideas and thoughts and suggestions in one of your episodes.

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But what I would like to do is also record my conversations while I'm in

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the cockpit with my flight instructor.

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So I'd just like to know what setup you have, what you-- I know what

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you originally did, but then you changed it to where you had some

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better, um, better, uh, recordings.

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So I would just like to know what you specifically did.

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I would greatly appreciate it, 'cause I would love to have this to go forward

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and also to have my son listen to it.

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He's 15, about to start his flight, journey as well.

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So something that we can both listen to on the way home.

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Thank you.

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Have a great day.

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Nick, thank you.

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And Nick isn't the only one.

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This has been one of the most common questions I probably get since

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I started the podcast in 2008.

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And he's right, I did change how I do it, several times actually.

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So here's the plan.

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First, why you'd wanna record your lessons at all, because it's a bigger

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deal than most people probably think.

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Then I'll show you what I use today, and then every alternative I've used

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over the years, because I've used all of them, and they're basically

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all still relevant and feasible.

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Along the way, we'll get into the one thing that trips a lot of

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people up, and that's audio levels.

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And near the end, the question that should really drive your choice: What

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do you actually want the recording for?

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So fair warning, this one gets a little audio technical in spots.

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I'll keep it high level, I promise.

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Audio and video nerds like me love this stuff, but you don't have to be one.

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Understanding a few of the ins and outs is what gets you better

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recordings, so bear with me.

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If you're listening to the audio version, and I know most of you listen to this

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show with audio, and I love that,

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I dig the audio medium a lot and have based the podcast around it.

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Sometimes, though, video can help get an idea across, and

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that may be the case here.

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A lot of this one is easier to see than hear, which I understand is ironic

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considering it's an episode about capturing audio, but it's still true here.

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So the full video is on YouTube.

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I've also added pictures to this audio episode, so if your podcast app shows

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chapter art, keep an eye on your screen.

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There's a lot of, "Listen to this, now listen to that," coming up.

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The same radio call through different recorders, different cables, levels

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that are right, and levels that are not.

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It works by ear, I made sure of that, but seeing the gear, the meters,

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the labels on screen when you hear it can make it click a lot faster.

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So if you're interested in recording your own flights and you're somewhere

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you can watch, pause right here, go to studentpilotcast.com/98,

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that's the episode number, or just tap the link in the show notes.

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The video's right at the top of the page.

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Pick it up there, and I'll see you on the other side.

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So a quick heads up before the next part.

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Up there I say six recorders are running, and I thought they were.

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What I didn't know yet is that the iPad recording had already quit on me.

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Hang on to that, 'cause it comes back later.

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All right, so here I am in the airplane introducing you to each of the

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recordings, and you're gonna be hearing from that recording as I introduce it

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All right, everybody.

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Right now there are, I believe, six things recording in this flight, recording audio.

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My headset is recording to my phone the way I normally do it, the Lightspeed

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headset using the Lightspeed app.

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Uh, there's a splitter cable

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That's, uh, feeding a little 32-bit float recorder in the back seat.

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And, uh, then there's another splitter that's going to the GoPro right up here.

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So it's feeding that and recording that with the video.

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Then there is a USB-C cable splitter, and that one is going to my iPad for

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when I'm using ForeFlight on, and I'm using voice recorder to record that

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And, uh, then I've got a lav mic that's, uh, stuffed in my ear cup, and it's

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going to another 32-bit float recorder.

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And then

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That is recording just the ambient sound without any, uh,

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external microphones, just the built-in microphone recording the-

Random Pilot:

Northwest practice area, Varney 410,

Random Pilot:

eight miles … the

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ambient sound in the cockpit.

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East of the Lake Pleasant, heading to Wickenburg, northwest practice area.

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So same flight, same time, six different recordings, and we'll

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compare them all in the episode not all of them did what I planned.

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You already know about the iPad.

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One started late because I forgot to put it in, and one

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came in hotter than I expected.

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You'll hear all of that because that's the real lesson

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All right, before we get into the gear, let's talk about why this matters,

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especially for students like Nick.

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Any student or instructor will tell you this.

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In an airplane, the student really only hears maybe, I don't know, 25,

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40% of what the instructor says, and I mean really hears it, like

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takes it in and understands it.

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Everybody says the cockpit is a terrible classroom, and it is.

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When you're actually learning, you're usually task-saturated.

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One of the first things your brain starts blocking out is what you're hearing.

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It's called auditory exclusion, and we see it all the time.

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Or is it hear it all the time or don't hear it all the time?

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I don't know, but I'm digressing anyway.

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So when you listen back later in your car, at home, at your desk, you'll hear

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things you never heard in the airplane.

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You'd have sworn your instructor never said that until you

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listen to the recording.

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It's uncanny, and it happens all the time.

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That's why these recordings are such valuable debrief tools.

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You listen back, you catch what you missed, and you show up to

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the next lesson a step ahead.

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And if you're really crazy, maybe a little dumb, you take all that audio

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and you start a podcast around it.

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Don't ask me how I know.

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And for the instructors listening, this is part of why we repeat ourselves so much.

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We know the student is not hearing a lot of what we're saying in the moment.

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Here is a quick excerpt from episode 89, "Hi, Nice to Meet Rue," that

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demonstrates one of the hundreds of ways an audio recording can help you

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learn by reflecting on your experiences

Random Pilot:

C one on the go, unit two Cross five fifty-two, contact

Random Pilot:

tower one to four point six, please

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And by the way, I really didn't know for sure what had happened until

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later on when I went back to the recording and kind of figured it out.

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But I knew something was up, uh, when Six Kilo Sierra called back in,

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but I really didn't even know at the time that I had made that mistake.

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It's pretty funny

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And this ties right back to my conversation with Adriana

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from FlyOrca in episode 96.

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Logging the time isn't necessarily learning.

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It's reflecting on that flight that is.

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What you did, what you didn't do, what your instructor said.

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Sometimes reflecting back means listening back.

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So students, ask your instructor if it's okay to record.

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Most of us will love it since we know you're not hearing most of what we say

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unless you listen back later anyway.

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But check with them first just in case

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Here's what I use today.

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I mostly record these days using the recording feature on my Lightspeed Delta

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Zulu headset, and it records to my phone.

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Why do I use that?

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Well, mostly because it's easy.

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It needs no extra equipment, no extra cables in the cockpit, and I

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always have my phone and my headset when I fly, so it's just there.

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A couple of times a week, I export the recordings to the cloud for safekeeping.

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it doesn't hurt that the recordings are pretty high quality.

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Let me show you how it works.

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The headset connects to the phone over Bluetooth.

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Once it's connected, I open the Lightspeed app and start the recording.

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I fly.

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I don't touch it.

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Afterwards, I stop it, sometimes, but in actuality, it stops automatically

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when you turn the headset off.

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So that's how I sometimes do it.

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It saves the audio in the app, and here's where it ends up

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and how I get it off the phone.

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If you have a different Lightspeed headset, it works a similar

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way, but, and this is a little confusing, so stick with me here.

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Each one has its own app.

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The Delta Zulu uses the Lightspeed app.

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The newest Zulu 4 uses one called Lightspeed Aviation, and the older models

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like the Zulu 2, Zulu 3, Sierra, and so on, use something called FlightLink.

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I'll put all three in the show notes.

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Here's what it sounds like straight off my phone from this flight.

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The takeoff clearance, a couple of other calls, and then me on the takeoff roll

ATC:

Red Rock 60, Falcon Tower.

ATC:

Fly straight out, wind zero five zero at niner, runway four right.

ATC:

Cleared for takeoff.

Bill:

Straight out, cleared for takeoff on four right, Red Rock 60.

ATC:

Thrust 550, Falcon Tower, runway four right, line up and wait.

ATC:

Traffic three mile base.

ATC:

Line up and wait.

ATC:

Thrust, uh, four right, thrust 550.

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All right, everything is on.

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Ready to take off.

ATC:

Hawk 4285, turn base now, runway four right.

ATC:

Continue traffic holding in position.

Random Pilot:

Turn base now.

Random Pilot:

Continue, Hawk 4285.

ATC:

Hawk 4263, Squawker base.

ATC:

Squawker base,

Random Pilot:

Hawk

ATC:

4263.

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All right, airspeed is alive.

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Engine instruments are in the green.

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There's 60.

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We're gonna rotate.

ATC:

West five fifty.

ATC:

Blue departure approved.

ATC:

Wind zero four zero at niner.

ATC:

Runway four right.

ATC:

Clear for takeoff

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So clean.

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That's the audio panel.

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ATC, me, whoever's in one of the other seats.

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This is one of the many reasons I love the Delta Zulu, especially

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for learning and teaching.

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I'll do a whole episode on gear down the road, headsets included, but if you

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already own a headset with a recording feature, this is a really good way to go.

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If you don't and you're in the market, check whether the ones you're considering

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have recording features and consider it if you care a lot about recording easily.

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It has the added bonus feature that you can actually replay calls in

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real time in your headset in case you think you missed something.

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You can do that real time in the plane, but that's a topic for, another time

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If your headset doesn't record, this is the classic way, and it's

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what I showed you back in 2009.

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A special cable splits the audio from the airplane and sends a copy to the recorder.

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Your headset has two plugs.

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The bigger one carries the audio to your ear cups.

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That's the one that goes into the cable.

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The cable goes into the airplane, and a separate lead comes off

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the side to your recorder.

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Here's the part that matters and the part people get confused about sometimes.

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Your recorder expects mic level, a very quiet signal.

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The airplane's audio panel puts out headphone level to drive

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these big headsets that we wear, which is much, much hotter.

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Plug that straight into a mic input and it peaks so badly it's unusable.

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So the cable has to attenuate that signal or knock it down to

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something close to mic level.

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That's what makes the special cable special.

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I showed this in the airplane before the test flight.

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Here's the little Zoom H1n on a splitter cable with the avionics on.

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All right.

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So as you can see, this is the typical way to do this.

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You would have this coming in right here and going into the recorder.

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I can change my levels right here.

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Um, we already showed what it's like if these levels are all

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the way up and everything is just sort of, uh, blowing out.

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Of course, it would e- be even worse if I wasn't using one of these cables.

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But if I turn this down a little bit, we get a much better recording.

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It's not peaking out, and you can see the level meters moving.

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Here's the funny thing.

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When I cranked it in the airplane, it didn't actually sound that bad,

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and the meter never really slammed into the top because this Zoom has

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a limiter, and it was turned on.

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The limiter caught it and kind of messed up my demo a little

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bit while saving the audio.

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You can still hear it gets a little rough, though

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So to show you what real clipping sounds like, I simulated it from

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a more controlled test that we'll get to later in the episode.

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For now, let me demonstrate what clipping is and what it sounds like.

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It's what happens when the level is too high for the recording.

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You're about to hear the same bit of the ATIS three times.

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First, recorded at the right level.

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Second, recorded too loud.

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The loudest parts get chopped off.

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You'll hear it crunch.

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And third, way too loud.

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That one's pretty much unusable.

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Bravo Tower, information Charlie, time two three five four Zulu.

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Wind calm, temperature two niner, dew point one two,

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altimeter two niner eight niner

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Bakersfield Tower, Information Charlie, time two three five four Zulu.

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Wind calm, temperature two niner, dew point one two,

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altimeter two niner eight niner

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Five tower, thank you Charlie.

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Time two three five four Zulu.

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Wind calm.

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Temperature two niner, dew point one two.

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Altimeter two niner eight niner

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That crunch is called clipping, and you cannot fix it afterward in post.

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So if your recorder has a limiter, turn it on.

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It's a safety net, but a safety net isn't a plan.

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Set your levels anyway.

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Even with a good cable, I found it best to have a recorder where you can set

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the record levels, and it's especially useful if the gain levels have a

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physical knob rather than having to go into menus, especially if those levels

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happen to get reset, maybe on restart or changing the batteries or something.

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Something like this little Zoom H1n works because you can set the

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levels, and it has that physical knob.

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But most recorders will work as long as you can adjust the levels somehow.

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That's the key with a standard recorder.

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Why is it so important to adjust the levels?

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Every airplane is different.

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Every audio panel is a little different.

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Every attenuating splitter cable is different, as we'll see later.

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And where the pilot sets the volume on the panel or the radios for

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their headsets, that matters, too.

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So you fine-tune the levels for that airplane that day with those

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settings and that equipment.

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Again, if there are easy-to-read level meters on the recorder, like on this

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Zoom, it makes this much, much easier.

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So here's a practical safety tip.

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Set your levels on the ground with the avionics on and something real

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playing through the panel like ATIS or radio calls before you're busy flying.

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Then leave it alone.

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The last thing you need is a distraction at the wrong time.

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Bad or missing audio for a flight is a lot better than the possible alternatives

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if you let it be a distraction.

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You have been warned

Random Pilot:

Continue taxi, monitor tower, Oxford

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100.

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Of course, if you have a 32-bit float type of recorder like this,

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um, that works too, and that's what I'm gonna switch to now, and then

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we don't have to worry about levels

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Well, almost.

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Let me explain what 32-bit float is and then what I mean by almost.

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A digital recorder measures the sound thousands of times a second and writes

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each measurement down as a number.

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A regular recorder writes those numbers on a fixed scale, and

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anything louder than the top of that scale just gets chopped off.

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That's the clipping that you heard a few minutes ago.

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A 32-bit float recorder writes the numbers in a different format, a

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little like scientific notation, so the scale can stretch almost without

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limit from very quiet to very loud.

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And here's why that matters.

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You don't have to set the record levels.

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If the signal goes over the top, it's still in the file, and you can

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pull it back down afterward in post.

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Recorders that do this used to just be high-end specialty gear, but

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they're becoming more and more common.

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They can generally cost a bit more than a regular recorder, but it's way more

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accessible than when I started doing this.

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To keep things small and easy, there are wearable mics that record 32-bit float

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on board and have external mic inputs.

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It's important that they have those external mic inputs.

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So options here are like the Insta360 Mic Pro or the DJI Mic 2.

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They're small, light, easy to stash during a flight.

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Any workload taken off of you in the air makes the flight safer and makes it more

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likely you actually get the recording.

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So it's a win-win when you use 32-bit float and small stashable recorders.

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On this flight, the DJI Mic 2 was on one of the splitter

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cables, and it came in hot.

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Really hot.

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You're gonna hear the same few seconds twice.

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First, exactly as it came off the recorder.

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Don't worry, I turned it down a bit so it won't blast you too bad.

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Then the same file just turned down afterward in the edit.

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I've never done them in a Cherokee.

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That wasn't too bad.

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We didn't gain a lot of altitude though.

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I'm gonna try that again.

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Okay, so I'm gonna set five degrees.

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I'm gonna start pulling up.

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Be a little more aggressive on the pull-up

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I've never done them in a Cherokee.

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That wasn't too bad.

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We didn't gain a lot of altitude though.

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I'm gonna try that again.

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Okay, so I'm gonna set five degrees.

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I'm gonna start pulling up.

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Be a little more aggressive on the pull-up

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Same file.

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I just turned it down afterward.

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Those peaks were going about 12 decibels over the top of the scale, and every

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bit of it was still in the file.

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That's 32-bit float doing its job.

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With an ordinary recorder, that first one would've probably been ruined.

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But let's be honest about this.

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If you listen closely, there are still some little ticks on this track.

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Here's one spot.

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First, the DJI after I turned it down.

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Listen for a little click on the loudest words.

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Then the exact same moment from the GoPro, which was on a different

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jack with a different cable.

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Now, the difference here between these two recordings wasn't

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the DJI Mic 2 versus the GoPro.

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As you'll see later in the episode, it had mostly to do with the cable being

Bill:

used than with the recorder that we used.

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But we will get to that.

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Past 1,000 feet.

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Airport is available to us.

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Fuel pump's coming off.

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We're gonna start leaning rich

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Past 1,000 feet.

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Airport is available to us.

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Fuel pump's coming on.

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We'll start leaning-

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Here's why.

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32-bit float protects the recording after the signal gets into the recorder.

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It can't protect the little input circuit at the front door.

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If the cable sends in more than that input can handle, the distortion

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happens before the 32-bit float magic ever gets a chance to do its thing.

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On this flight, the DJI's input maxed out at about 13 decibels over the top.

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Every tick you hear is a spot where it hit that ceiling.

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Zoom way in on the waveform, and you can actually see it.

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The tops of the loudest words are flat.

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So you still need the attenuating cable, of course, and you need to make sure

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it's the right one for the equipment you have, the airplane you have, and so on.

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I used an aviation recorder cable on this flight, of course.

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That was the whole point.

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It's the one I've been using lately.

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But on that jack, on that airplane, it let more signal through than

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that little input can handle.

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Cables are made for different inputs, so one that's perfect for one camera

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might be a little too hot for a little wireless mic, for example.

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So here's the tip.

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Anytime you get a new cable, test it on the ground first.

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Intercom volume where you would normally fly it, talk loudly, play

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the ATIS, and listen to the recording before you trust it in the air So I

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did exactly that, but I didn't wanna do it necessarily in the airplane.

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So that takes us to the cable test

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All right, so here's the problem with recording everything in the

Bill:

airplane, um, during a flight.

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Every recorder was plugged into a different jack in a 60-year-old airplane.

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So if one sounded different, was it the cable?

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Was it the jack?

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Was it the intercom in the airplane?

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Was it the, the recorder?

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Who knows, right?

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So I'm gonna do some tests where we take the airplane out of it.

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this is my Sporty's PJ2 handheld radio.

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it's got headset jacks in it that are just like in an airplane.

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So I'm gonna use my Lightspeed headset right here.

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Uh, we're gonna plug this into the radio itself, and then I've got each one of

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these cables uh, sitting here and labeled.

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And we're gonna swap out the cables, and we're gonna do it

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into two different recorders.

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We're gonna do it into the Zoom digital recorder, and we're gonna do

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it into the DGI wireless recorder.

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This one does 32-bit float, and this one has an input gain

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right here on the front of it.

Bill:

We're gonna set this right at 5 in the middle, and we're gonna

Bill:

leave it there the whole time.

Bill:

That's this gain right here.

Bill:

And we're gonna listen to the ATIS.

Bill:

I'm sitting here at the airport, so it's a decently strong signal, and we're

Bill:

gonna try every one of these cables with every one of these recorders.

Bill:

So let's talk about which cables there are.

Bill:

This is the first one we're gonna test.

Bill:

Uh, … This is our alpha cable, and this is from Pilot USA.

Bill:

This is one I've had for quite a while, and it's the, the one I've probably

Bill:

been using most when I use this type of cable for the last, couple of years.

Bill:

cable B here is something that I recently got.

Bill:

I've used this company's equipment before, but this is from, Inflight Cam,

Bill:

and, this is a cable that I recently acquired, mostly for this test.

Bill:

… They, they all seem like pretty decent cables.

Bill:

I like this one 'cause it's small.

Bill:

It doesn't have as bulky, fittings on it and things like that.

Bill:

So that's gonna be our B cable.

Bill:

Our C cable is very old.

Bill:

I've had this for a couple of decades, and this one's for, from a company called

Bill:

Trainer and Associates out of Ohio.

Bill:

no idea if they're still in business or they're still making this cable, but

Bill:

this is gonna be our C cable if it works.

Bill:

I don't even know if it works.

Bill:

So we're gonna try that out.

Bill:

our D cable right here, you might recognize this from my,

Bill:

video that I did 17 years ago.

Bill:

and this is a cable that I've been using all of that time.

Bill:

Now you can see there's some physical fraying here.

Bill:

Again, not sure if this cable's gonna work.

Bill:

But if it does, this is gonna be our D cable for the tests.

Bill:

And this one's from a company called Barnstormer Audio.

Bill:

again, not sure if they're still making these or even if they're still around.

Bill:

And the last one we've got here is our labeled our W cable.

Bill:

This is from Wire Nest.

Bill:

This is one I've recently acquired.

Bill:

I got this off of Amazon.

Bill:

This one's a little different because it's got a USB-C cable on it.

Bill:

So that is meant to go into a phone or a tablet and record there, where these

Bill:

others have a stereo, one eighth inch jack on them to go into the mic inputs on

Bill:

either a recorder like this or this, or into a camera if it's equipped with that.

Bill:

so we're gonna try all these things.

Bill:

This one, of course, I'm gonna use my phone to record on, and only my phone.

Bill:

And the rest of these, four I'm going to record into both of these recorders so

Bill:

you and I can really hear the difference

Bill:

All right, a quick note on these two recorders.

Bill:

Since you can't see which one I'm pointing at, the DJI Mic 2 is the

Bill:

one that records in 32-bit float.

Bill:

The Zoom H1n is the one with the input levels knob.

Bill:

It's set at five, right in the middle, and I left it there for the whole test,

Bill:

and I ran each of the four cables at three radio volumes: quiet, normal, and loud.

Bill:

Here's something I found about the cables when I was getting ready for this.

Bill:

Neither of the two companies that I'm using the regular cables for

Bill:

publishes how much their cable actually turns the signal down.

Bill:

They both say they work with a three-and-a-half millimeter

Bill:

mic input, and that's it.

Bill:

So the only way to know is to test it, like I did here.

Bill:

First, the two cables I actually use plugged into the same little

Bill:

DJI mic, radio at the same volume, same sentence of the ATIS.

Bill:

First, the Pilot USA cable, which is several years old, then the

Bill:

in-flight cam, which I recently purchased for these tests.

Bill:

I haven't touched the levels.

Bill:

This is exactly how loud each one came in

Bill:

Bakersfield Tower, Information Charlie, time two three five four Zulu.

Bill:

Wind calm, temperature two niner dew point one two.

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Altimeter two niner eight niner

Bill:

Charlie time two three five four Zulu.

Bill:

Wind calm, temperature two niner dew point one two, altimeter two niner eight niner

Bill:

So that's not really subtle.

Bill:

The Pilot USA cable sends about six times more signal into that little

Bill:

mic than the in-flight cam does.

Bill:

And remember the hot DJI track from the flight with those little ticks?

Bill:

That was on this Pilot USA cable I ran them into my Zoom at normal volume too.

Bill:

Same story, just a smaller gap, and both were clean, so I

Bill:

won't make you sit through it.

Bill:

Now I turned the radio up.

Bill:

This is the Pilot USA cable again, way over the top on the DJI.

Bill:

You'll hear it as recorded, turned down for you so it won't blast your ears.

Bill:

Then the same file turned down afterwards in the edit.

Bill:

Five tower, Frankie Charlie, time two three five four Zulu.

Bill:

Wind calm, temperature two niner, dew point one two,

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altimeter two niner eight niner

Bill:

Five Tower, thank you, Charlie time two three five four Zulu.

Bill:

Wind calm, temperature two niner, dew point one two,

Bill:

altimeter two niner eight niner

Bill:

Clean.

Bill:

That's 32-bit float earning its keep.

Bill:

On this radio, the DJI handled it.

Bill:

In the airplane on a hotter intercom, it was right at the edge.

Bill:

Now, the same loud radio into my Zoom, the regular recorder, record level set

Bill:

right in the middle, same as it was before, which is another way of saying

Bill:

that the input gain was turned down from nominal or what audio engineers

Bill:

would call unity by about half.

Bill:

First, the hot Pilot USA cable, then the in-flight cam cable.

Bill:

I've matched the volumes of the two, so you're only hearing the difference in

Bill:

how they sound, not how loud they were.

Bill:

Five Tower, Fishing Charlie, time two three five four Zulu.

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Wind calm, temperature two niner, dew point one two,

Bill:

altimeter two niner eight niner

Bill:

Charlie time two three five four Zulu.

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Wind calm.

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Temperature two niner dew point one two.

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Altimeter two niner eight niner

Bill:

Sounds fine, right?

Bill:

That's because the Zoom's limiter was on and it caught those peaks.

Bill:

A limiter is a safety net on a regular recorder.

Bill:

It squashes the loudest bits so they don't clip.

Bill:

Leave it on.

Bill:

But it's not 32-bit float.

Bill:

If the signal is hot enough to overload the input itself, a limiter can't save you

Bill:

I also did everything at a quiet radio volume.

Bill:

Everything was just quieter, so there's really nothing new to hear, so I left

Bill:

out the samples for this episode.

Bill:

And now the old-timer cables.

Bill:

The Traynor cable passed almost nothing, so there's nothing to play.

Bill:

But the other one, my cable from 17 years ago from the other, episode that

Bill:

I did so long ago, you'll hear it first.

Bill:

Then you'll hear the USB-C cable going into my phone.

Bill:

I had to turn both of them up a lot so you can hear them at all

Bill:

Lark Tower, 5K Charlie, time two three five four Zulu.

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Wind calm, temperature two niner, dew point one two,

Bill:

altimeter two niner eight niner

Bill:

Charlie time two three five four Zulu wind calm, temperature two niner dew point

Bill:

one two, altimeter two niner eight niner

Bill:

So the 2009 cable is still alive, but just barely.

Bill:

17 years and a lot of flights, retired with honors.

Bill:

The phone cable works and it's clean, but it's quiet, so you'll

Bill:

be turning it up afterwards.

Bill:

Turning the radio up helps some, so if you use one, run your volume

Bill:

on the loud side and make sure your phone isn't connected to a

Bill:

Bluetooth headset when you hit record.

Bill:

Ask me how I know.

Bill:

Here's the thing I didn't expect.

Bill:

The gap between the levels attenuated by the two cables changed depending on the

Bill:

recorder that they were plugged into.

Bill:

A big gap on the DJI, a much smaller one on the Zoom.

Bill:

So the cable that's too hot for one recorder can be just right for another.

Bill:

Test your cable.

Bill:

Test it with the recorder you're going to actually use.

Bill:

My buying advice for a little wireless mic like the DJI Mic 2 or the Insta360

Bill:

Mic Pro, I'd go with the in-flight cam.

Bill:

It turns things down more, and that's what those inputs want.

Bill:

The Pilot USA is fine into something where you can set the level or a camera with

Bill:

a level control, just keep an eye on it.

Bill:

One important note, a handheld isn't an airplane's audio panel, and every

Bill:

intercom puts out a different level.

Bill:

So your numbers will be different, but the test was the same for every

Bill:

cable, and that was the point.

Bill:

You can do this exact same test yourself with a handheld before you

Bill:

trust a new cable in the air as well.

Bill:

32-bit float isn't the only way to hit record without a separate recorder.

Bill:

You saw this one in the cable test that we did.

Bill:

Same idea as the other cables, but instead of a little mini plug for a recorder or

Bill:

a camera, the end of this one is USB-C.

Bill:

It plugs straight into your phone or a tablet, and it

Bill:

records the intercom and the ATC.

Bill:

No separate recording device, no extra batteries, nothing.

Bill:

For a lot of students, that might be the simplest answer of all.

Bill:

You already have the phone.

Bill:

On the flight, I used the built-in voice memos app on my iPad

Bill:

Mini, nothing even to install.

Bill:

So how did it sound in the airplane?

Bill:

Here's the same radio call from three recorders all plugged

Bill:

into the airplane's audio.

Bill:

First, the little DJI recorder, then the GoPro, then the iPad.

Bill:

They're all hearing the same audio, so listen for small

Bill:

differences in tone and background

Bill:

Good afternoon, Falcon Ground.

Bill:

Uh, Red Rock sixty is approaching spot two.

Bill:

We have the information, and we would like a red departure, please.

Bill:

Good afternoon, Falcon Ground.

Bill:

Uh, Red Rock sixty is approaching spot two.

Bill:

We have the information, and we would like a red departure, please.

Bill:

Good afternoon, Falcon Ground.

Bill:

Uh, Red Rock sixty is approaching spot two.

Bill:

We have the information, and we would like a red departure, please.

Bill:

To my ears, the DJI sounded the best.

Bill:

It wasn't clipping on that call, and that helped.

Bill:

The GoPro was a close second, b-but there's more of a hum underneath it.

Bill:

It sounds like electrical noise, which is really common, especially

Bill:

in older airplanes, and it could just have been that jack.

Bill:

And the iPad wasn't even close.

Bill:

It sounds like it's missing pieces, a little jumbled, hard to understand.

Bill:

Part of that is the level it records.

Bill:

At least this cable that I had records so quietly that when you turn it up, you're

Bill:

turning up the hiss and the compression artifacts along with it, and that's

Bill:

probably what makes it sound jumbled.

Bill:

But here's the catch.

Bill:

About 18 minutes in, the voice recorder app on the iPad just stopped recording.

Bill:

I didn't know it until I got back on the ground, and that's the one

Bill:

I warned you about at the start.

Bill:

I was using the iPad for ForeFlight and some notes, and my best guess is that the

Bill:

iPad suspended the recording app in the background when it needed the resources.

Bill:

It's also possible that I bumped something while I was switching apps, but either

Bill:

way, it stopped and I didn't know.

Bill:

And it's not just the iPad.

Bill:

Over the years, my Lightspeed app has quit partway through a

Bill:

recording a couple of times too.

Bill:

Rarely, but it does happen.

Bill:

So if the audio from a flight really, really matters, record it in two

Bill:

unrelated ways with different equipment.

Bill:

On this flight, the iPad quit recording, but I didn't lose a thing

Bill:

because everything else kept rolling.

Bill:

A few more things if you go this route.

Bill:

Put the phone in do not disturb.

Bill:

You don't want a notification in the recording or interrupting it.

Bill:

the port is taken with the recorder cable, so you can't charge while you

Bill:

record, so start with a full battery.

Bill:

If your EFB is also your recorder, know that it might juggle apps and

Bill:

it might not juggle in your favor.

Bill:

It records quietly, at least the cable I u-used did, so run your intercom volume on

Bill:

the loud side and check Bluetooth first.

Bill:

If your phone or tablet is connected to a Bluetooth headset, it may

Bill:

record from that instead of the cable

Bill:

If you're shooting video too, there's a few more options.

Bill:

I'll go deep on a video episode in the future, but here's the audio side.

Bill:

Most action cameras and most of the cameras people use in cockpits have

Bill:

a way to plug in an external mic.

Bill:

You still use the same splitter cable, but instead of going to a

Bill:

recorder, it goes into the camera.

Bill:

This is the GoPro accessory I sometimes use for that.

Bill:

The nice part is the audio and the video are already synced.

Bill:

Nothing to do later.

Bill:

You already heard the GoPro's audio in the comparison a minute

Bill:

ago, and that was this setup.

Bill:

But there are a couple of things to think about.

Bill:

The first is battery.

Bill:

An audio recorder will probably outlast any GAA flight you'll ever make.

Bill:

A camera might not.

Bill:

My GoPro made it the whole hour this time, but I couldn't count on that on every

Bill:

flight, especially for longer flights.

Bill:

So unless you're powering the camera from some external source,

Bill:

they usually don't make it.

Bill:

That's one of the reasons that an accessory that allows you

Bill:

to record and charge at the same time can be really useful.

Bill:

The second problem you might run into is heat.

Bill:

If the camera overheats or you have to shut it off for some reason, you're also

Bill:

not recording the audio while it's off.

Bill:

And the third is distraction, and this is a big one.

Bill:

Recording video can be a major distraction when you're flying.

Bill:

It takes experience, testing, and extra discipline before you take that on.

Bill:

We'll talk about that safety more in a future recording video episode.

Bill:

But for reasons like these, I prefer to record audio completely separately

Bill:

from video, even when I'm doing both.

Bill:

Sometimes I record audio separately and into the camera as a backup to

Bill:

each other, but also as an aid in syncing later in post-production.

Bill:

All right, now the real question: What do you want the recordings for?

Bill:

If it's to document your lessons, meaning what you said, what your instructor

Bill:

said, what ATC said, and maybe an AI transcript afterward, then the clean

Bill:

audio panel-type recording is perfect.

Bill:

That's a Lightspeed or another recording headset or a recorder on a cable or

Bill:

a cable straight into your phone.

Bill:

It's actually the best kind of recording for an AI transcript because

Bill:

there's so little background noise.

Bill:

And please use AI or a service for the transcript.

Bill:

Don't do it by hand like I had to back in 2008.

Bill:

But there's a catch.

Bill:

That clean recording has a kind of ultra-sterile quality to it.

Bill:

When ATC isn't talking and nobody in the cockpit is talking,

Bill:

the recording is dead silence.

Bill:

Then a voice pops in all of a sudden, and here's why.

Bill:

When someone speaks and breaks the squelch on the audio panel,

Bill:

you hear the background noise coming through their microphone.

Bill:

When they stop, the squelch closes, and it goes silent again.

Bill:

That's really good for not driving you crazy in the cockpit, but it

Bill:

also doesn't sound like it sounds in the cockpit if you're recording it.

Bill:

I demonstrated this on the flight test.

Bill:

I stopped talking for 20 seconds, and you'll hear that quiet

Bill:

stretch three different ways.

Bill:

First, just the camera's microphone in the cabin in all its loud glory.

Bill:

Second, the cabin mixed in underneath my headset recording turned way

Bill:

down, the way I'd mix it for a video.

Bill:

And third, just the headset by itself.

Bill:

Then when I start talking again, I'll bring that cabin sound back in under

Bill:

my voice, mixed the way I would do it for a video that I was gonna publish,

Bill:

so you can hear the finished result

Bill:

All right.

Bill:

Here's the test.

Bill:

In a second, I'm gonna stop talking for about 20 seconds.

Bill:

If you're listening to the recording from the audio panel,

Bill:

it's about to go dead silent.

Bill:

If you're listening to the cockpit recording, you'll hear

Bill:

what I'm hearing right now.

Bill:

Starting now

Bill:

Right.

Bill:

If that wind's silent, that is the squelch.

Bill:

That's the sterile recording.

Bill:

Uh, that's not what the airplane sounds like when you're really in it, of course

Bill:

Here's what that sounds like in a finished episode that I've released previously.

Bill:

This is from episode 89, Flying My Jabiru Little Ru.

Bill:

Same method, the headset recording for the voices and the cabin mixed in underneath.

Bill:

Listen to the engine change as I take off even when nobody's talking

Bill:

Clear for takeoff.

Bill:

Doors are closed.

Bill:

Flaps are set 10 degrees.

Bill:

Seat belts are secured.

Bill:

Landing light is on

ATC:

Skyline Four six four eight Juliet.

ATC:

Falcon Tower.

ATC:

Fly straight out runway four right.

ATC:

Clear for takeoff.

Bill:

Clear for takeoff four right, and we'll fly straight out,

Bill:

four eight Juliet

ATC:

Nine one Six Juliet, we keep it a visual four right

Random Pilot:

Station nine one Six Juliet Falcon, uh, Tower, make a

Random Pilot:

right traffic runway four right

Random Pilot:

Right traffic four right

Random Pilot:

All right, final is clear

Random Pilot:

One six zero right, better

Random Pilot:

entry

Random Pilot:

right base, one

Random Pilot:

six right Right base entry, four right, one six right

Bill:

All right, power's coming up

Bill:

More braking.

Bill:

Airspeed is alive.

Bill:

Engine instruments are in the green

ATC:

November seven five one six papa Falcon, tower, you up?

Bill:

And we'll fly the nose

ATC:

Two one seven, just continue that heading for now for,

ATC:

uh, IFR citation and balance.

ATC:

No need to return, uh, to the green

Random Pilot:

Heading two four two one seven

Bill:

All right.

Bill:

Flaps are coming up

Bill:

So that sterile audio from the panel is great for a transcript, but that's not

Bill:

what flying an airplane sounds like to your real ears, like I mentioned earlier.

Bill:

So if you're making videos or audio productions and you want it to

Bill:

sound like you're really there, that background noise needs to be there

Bill:

all the time, low and unobtrusive.

Bill:

There's a couple of ways to get it

Bill:

The first way, a lav mic into a separate recorder.

Bill:

Again, 32-bit float really helps here, and the same small mic systems

Bill:

from Insta360, DJI, and others work, along with the more traditional

Bill:

recorders from Zoom and others.

Bill:

You pop the business end of the lav mic into one of your ear cups so the

Bill:

recording hears everything you hear.

Bill:

And this is the recorder that started late.

Bill:

I almost forgot to start it.

Bill:

Here's me remembering about halfway through the flight.

Bill:

Listen to what happens when it's just open in the cockpit, and then

Bill:

I stick it in and the ear cup closes

Bill:

All right.

Bill:

Check, check, check

Bill:

Did you hear that?

Bill:

Well, I measured it.

Bill:

Once the ear cup closed around my ear and the lav mic, the airplane got about

Bill:

twenty-three decibels quieter on that mic.

Bill:

To your ears, that's roughly a fifth as loud.

Bill:

That's the ear cup and the noise-canceling working together.

Bill:

The seal knocks down the high-pitched roar, and the noise-canceling

Bill:

goes after the low rumble.

Bill:

So the lav hears what you hear, the quieted version of the airplane,

Bill:

but you can still hear the engine and the wind in the background.

Bill:

But it's turned down, kind of the way it is in your ears

Bill:

when you're wearing a headset.

Bill:

It actually sounds pretty decent.

Bill:

With a headset that doesn't cancel noise, expect a little bit more

Bill:

of the airplane sounds in there.

Bill:

Here's what that sounds like once it's settled.

Bill:

The same moment twice, me talking, a radio call from another airplane,

Bill:

and then a few seconds of quiet.

Bill:

First, the clean recording from my headset.

Bill:

Then you'll hear the same thing with the lav in my ear cup.

Bill:

Listen to the quiet part at the end and hear the difference between the two

Bill:

Bumpy, little windy Skyclass Avery seven over Anton on four thousand eight

Bill:

hundred headed towards Scottsdale.

Bill:

I'm calling northwest

Bill:

Little bumpy, little windy Northwest Avery seven over Anton on four thousand

Bill:

eight hundred headed towards Scottsdale.

Bill:

I'm calling Northwest

Bill:

Hear that?

Bill:

The headset goes dead the moment nobody's talking.

Bill:

The lav never does.

Bill:

The airplane is still kind of back there quietly in the background.

Bill:

This often gives you a more natural sound.

Bill:

It picks up more of the engine, the prop, the wind, along with everything

Bill:

else from the audio panel, ATC, the other pilots, passengers, et cetera.

Bill:

The downside, of course, is that the ATC and the intercom audio is a little

Bill:

less clean, and it's already pre-mixed in with all that background noise,

Bill:

and there is no easy way to adjust the levels of those two things separately.

Bill:

How good it sounds depends a lot on the lav you're using, the headset, the

Bill:

panel levels, so it takes experimenting.

Bill:

If the recording isn't headed for production, though, you

Bill:

probably don't need this.

Bill:

The more sterile documented audio is likely all you need.

Bill:

The other way to get it to sound natural is to use two recordings,

Bill:

as I demonstrated earlier.

Bill:

That's how I do it when I know something is going into

Bill:

production, especially for video.

Bill:

I record a constant cockpit sound from inside the cockpit into a recorder or a

Bill:

camera with just its built-in mic, and the separate sterile panel audio, usually but

Bill:

not always, with my LightSpeed recording.

Bill:

The hard part is syncing them back up in post.

Bill:

This one took me an evening.

Bill:

Seven audio tracks, three camera angles lined up on a few hand clap marks.

Bill:

But it gives me the best of both worlds, including control over each track.

Bill:

If the background is too loud, I can turn it down without touching the voices.

Bill:

Now, I know most of you won't need this level of control.

Bill:

I just want you to know how the method you choose changes what you get,

Bill:

depending on what you're gonna do with it, and that's why it's important to

Bill:

know what you need to do with the audio.

Bill:

I know, it seems like a lot, so here's the short version.

Bill:

First, decide to record your lessons.

Bill:

You'll hear maybe a quarter of what your instructor says in the moment.

Bill:

The recording catches the rest.

Bill:

Ask your instructor first.

Bill:

Once that decision is made, keep these tips in mind.

Bill:

One, decide what it's for: documenting lessons or making something people

Bill:

will watch or listen to in the future.

Bill:

Two, if you're plugging into the airplane, the cable has to bring the

Bill:

headphone level down to mic level.

Bill:

Then either set your levels or use a 32-bit float-type

Bill:

recorder and just hit record.

Bill:

Or skip the recorder and use a USB-C cable straight into your phone.

Bill:

And any time you get a new cable or a new recording device, test it on

Bill:

the ground first with the recorder that you're actually gonna be using.

Bill:

And third, clean panel audio is perfect for transcripts and

Bill:

sounds a little bit sterile.

Bill:

For a natural sound, add the cockpit, a lav in the ear cup, or a second recording.

Bill:

Four, if it really matters, record it two unrelated ways with different equipment.

Bill:

Apps get suspended, batteries die, fingers bump things.

Bill:

Honestly, though, the important thing is to just start.

Bill:

Try it.

Bill:

Start recording.

Bill:

That's how you'll figure out what you need from your recordings and what you wanna

Bill:

do with them, and what works for you.

Bill:

I'll cover the hard part, which is syncing multiple audio tracks and a

Bill:

video or multiple videos in a future How to Record Video in the Cockpit

Bill:

episode, as I mentioned before

Bill:

I've had it on my to-do list to do another episode and a video on

Bill:

this topic, and Nick's voicemail is why this episode exists this week.

Bill:

So I mean it when I say this.

Bill:

Leave me a voicemail at studentpilotcast.com/radiocheck.

Bill:

Tell me what you're working on, what you're doing in aviation.

Bill:

Ask the question you keep wondering about.

Bill:

I read and I listen to every single one.

Bill:

And if you're not on the Friday Flight Brief yet, the link's in

Bill:

the show notes for that as well.

Bill:

and I hope that also means that I'm gonna hear more and more

Bill:

cockpit audio out on the internet.

Bill:

So 17 years later, here's what that turned into.

Bill:

A guy in Houston starting his private pilot journey who wants to record his

Bill:

lessons so he can play them on his drive home and for his 15-year-old

Bill:

son, who's also about to start flying.

Bill:

So that's better than just more cockpit audio on the internet,

Bill:

like I said 17 years ago.

Bill:

Nick, hit record, both of you, and then maybe, just maybe, share it with us

Bill:

Well, here we are still flying, still learning, still hitting record

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About the Podcast

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The Student Pilot Cast
Fly. Learn. Repeat. A Podcast about learning to fly.

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About your host

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Bill Williams

Bill Williams is a CFI/CFII and podcaster based in Mesa, Arizona. He's also a papa, a geek, a diver, a sailor, and a motorcycle rider, but flying is the thread that ties us together here.

Bill started the Student Pilot Cast as a student pilot, bringing listeners into the cockpit (and, more frighteningly, into his head) to share the triumphs and the setbacks of learning the art and science of flight. Years and a few interruptions later, the student became the instructor, and the show grew up with him.

Today the Student Pilot Cast is built around one idea: Fly. Learn. Repeat. Every flight teaches you something, but only if you take the time to reflect on it. Through solo episodes and conversations with instructors, training leaders, and aviation innovators, many recorded on the grounds at Oshkosh, Bill helps student pilots, new pilots, and fellow CFIs get more out of every hour in the air.