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5 Answers

Stuck microphone

Asked by: 10323 views ,
Aircraft Systems, Aviation Headsets, Commercial Pilot, Flight Instructor, General Aviation, Private Pilot, Student Pilot

What do you do when your microphone is stuck?

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5 Answers



  1. Jason on Mar 11, 2014

    I usually end up saying a bunch of stuff I don’t want the world to hear.

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  2. John D Collins on Mar 12, 2014

    Troubleshoot and un-stick the mike. Some radios will consider the mike as stuck and will stop transmitting after 30 seconds. This permits you to listen but not transmit. A stuck mike can be caused by failures at many points in the system. If you discover your mike is stuck, you can try to isolate the problem. Discovering the mike is stuck is not easy, particularly with older avionics that don’t provide a feedback that you are transmitting. More current VHF Com radios will indicated the unit is transmitting, usually by displaying a T on the unit.

    Here are some things the pilot can try:
    1) press and release the push to talk switch to see if it can be un-stuck
    2) Unplug the headset
    3) Unplug a mike with a built in push to talk
    4) Turn off the audio panel and or the intercom
    5) Select a different radio, some audio panels have more positions than radios, example Com1, 2 and 3 but 3 is not used. Switching to 3 may disconnect a stuck mike from the active and installed radios
    6) Turn off the radio

    If you can’t transmit, but can receive, listen for instructions to be acknowledged using your transponder, typically with the ident button

    Use your lost communications procedures including squawking 7600. Look for light signals at a towered airport.

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  3. Bob Watson on Mar 12, 2014

    Usually nothing because person with the stuck microphone is the last one to realize it.

    When the mike is keyed, the receivers are muted to prevent feedback so if the mike is stuck, all the receivers in the stack are disabled and you hear nothing. You might hear yourself talk, but if you have an intercom, that could be considered normal.

    Hopefully, if that happens to you, you don’t say anything you wouldn’t want the whole world to hear (because they will).

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  4. psequeira on Mar 12, 2014

    Thank you John and Bob

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  5. Don on Oct 03, 2014

    Couple of good ways to detect that you have a stuck mike:

    (1) The transmit light stays illuminated on your Radio.

    (2) You don’t hear everyone else talking all of a sudden.

    The INSTANT cure is to turn that radio off. Once you have stopped the stuck mike (which EVERYONE on the frequency will thank you for because a stuck mike essentially “Jams” the freq, rendering it almost impossible to use), you can do some quick trouble shooting. The most usual cause is a stuck mic (press to talk) switch. Sometimes this can be overcome by merely clicking the switch…other times it can be overcome by depressing the mic switch and sliding your finger off of it sideways….allowing it to sort of quickly pop back up. Once you try that, turn the radio back on and observe the “transmit light” if it comes right on and stays that way, the switch is still stuck and you will likely not be able to correct the problem. IN that case, Even if you can try a different radio, the stuck switch will likely cause that one to transmit, also. If it doesn’t, then the trouble is likely in the first radio.

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