Flying with music so loud that engine failure was not noticed, and bluetooth intercom gotchas

I’ve read the manual for that PS Engineering unit and yes, it does have the ability to isolate the pilot from the bluetooth input channel. It also (as default) mutes the music when radio transmissions are received or anyone speaks on the radio or intercom. He obviously did not know anything about his kit.

I don’t really like Bluetooth as a technology. I don’t like having to fiddle with settings on my phone to connect, and it is also a bit of a battery hog. Especially for an application like in-cockpit music an old-fashioned 3.5mm jack is much better and if you really need silence and can’t push any buttons you can just unplug it.

Reminds me of the time I went flying with a friend in Oklahoma in his Long-Ez. He was showing me how the canard design was docile and wouldn’t stall like a conventional plane, and we spent a couple of minutes mucking around with the engine at idle. Actually, it came to a complete stop – and I mean complete – the prop stopped too with the low airspeeds we had been flying at, and because the Long-Ez sounded so much (and felt a bit like) flying a fibreglass glider when the engine’s not running (and with the prop stopped glides rather well), it took me a few moments to notice that there really ought to be some engine noise. Opening the throttle a bit and hitting the starter got it going again.

Music and other distractions would be a big no go for me. I dont even listen to music when driving. And what about ATC ? Incredible. What about sterile cockpit?

But seeing all the smartphone junkies endangering others I sometimes think there should be regulation against using any such devices in traffic and that for pedestrians as much as anyone else.

Each to their own, but for me flying is about being up there with nature, listening to the sound (over the engine naturally) of what is going on around you, conversing with passengers and dealing with the radio. As a musician I cannot listen to music and concentrate fully on something else anyway, it’s just too distracting.
@Graham Graham wrote:

I don’t like having to fiddle with settings on my phone to connect

My iphone connects to my headphones whenever I turn them on, I dont have to do anything else, and stopping music is as simple as double-tapping the right ear muff, or tap the screen and press pause. I know that most Android phones I have seen are more awkward, but things are getting better from a UX perspective.

Peter wrote:

Then he could not turn the music off to make a mayday call

In an emergency the quickest is to turn BT off completely with the slider button on the Bose controller.

Peter wrote:

The explanation turned out to be simple enough

Easily solved with a reminder from SD every 30min after T/O.

So far I fly a fixed pitch prop, so engine noise is very informative. When I listen to music while flying, it’s only during cruise and never loud, so I can hear the engine.
I stop it for any activity requiring brain power: briefing an approach, running a checklist, handovers; and latest when preparing for descent.
When I think of it, it’s been mostly over north-eastern Germany or over the Baltic sea, when there are long stretches of nothing but cruising along.