How often has this sentence been uttered in the past when you are taking passengers in the back seats of a plane for the first time in a long time and a Garmin GMA 340 intercom device is installed?
A Garmin...what? Let's answer this question with the following picture:
Although this intercom is not the top modern standard, it is installed in many aeroplanes (especially Piper and Cessna models).
We all know that we can change the pilot's intercom settings on the left and the co-pilot's settings on the right. With the larger, outer ring we set the squelch (i.e. the sensitivity at which the microphone really responds) and with the inner ring we set the intercom volume of the respective seat.
But how can we adjust the volume in the rear seats?
The solution: We pull out the smaller knob on the co-pilot side (marked in red) and can then adjust the volume in the rear row of seats by turning it. This is actually very small and hidden next to the knob (marked purple in the picture above for the sake of simplicity).
The back rows are no longer complaining that they can't hear anything!
Below are a few more Pilot Hub insider tips, especially when it comes to flying with guests and the correct setting of the intercom system:
- The squelch button on the co-pilot side adjusts the sensitivity for both the co-pilot and the passengers in the rear seats.
- The easiest way to set the squelch: After starting the engines and switching on the avionics, be quiet and open the squelch to the maximum (so that the engine can be heard in the background). Then turn it down just enough to achieve silence. The squelch is now set to maximum sensitivity and guests do not have to shout too much into the microphone to be heard.
- The volume of the intercom has nothing to do with the volume of the radio equipment, such as COM1 and COM2! There are usually separate volume controls on the headphones for this purpose, so that the pilot can adjust COM1 and COM2 according to his needs, but the co-pilot can further increase or reduce the volume with his headphones if necessary. The intercom volume setting then ultimately only regulates the volume ratio between the intercom radio and the aircraft radio via COM1 or COM2.
