Narrative:

Departing on a cross country flight; we first noticed the excessive cockpit noise on takeoff. We departed utilizing a full power takeoff. I was the pilot flying and was basically unable to hear ATC until after the first power reduction. After cruise altitude I attempted to switch to speaker; this only lasted a short time as I was unable to clearly understand ATC instructions. During all phases of flight I continually needed to confirm ATC instructions with my first officer. He was having no problem hearing every command clearly because he was wearing a thousand dollar noise canceling headset. I put my ear piece back in my left ear and an earplug in my right. I flew the entire trip in this configuration. Without a doubt this was the most fatiguing flight I have flown in years. By the time we landed my head was throbbing; if it got any worse I would have deferred the landing to the first officer. We were met at the gate by a mechanic to debrief us. Clearly he did not seem to have a grasp on the noise problem; so I called maintenance. I had an in depth conversation with the lead and he was under the impression that most of the cockpit noise problems were directly related to the rh recirc fan. I advised him while most rh recirc fans make the cockpit slightly noisier; which is merely a secondary problem. The company and the FAA are refusing to address the main problem. We all should be asking ourselves one very important question; what is the maximum noise DB level permitted in the cockpit in flight? To the best of my knowledge; there is none. Therefore the use of service tip 21-22-00 in my opinion is nothing more than a placebo! As an example; a/C # 1 has a 70 DB sound reading at the gate with the APU and both packs on; and the rt recirc fan off; when the fan is turned on it is 4 DB higher for a total of 74 db. This is a failed test and the fan would be def leaving the total DB level at 70 DB. A/C #2 has a 90 db sound reading at the gate with the APU and both packs on and the right recirc fan off; when the fan is turned on it is 3 DB higher for a total of 93 DB. This is a successful test; and the airplane would be dispatched as normal with a total DB level at 93. Is this truly the intent of this regulation? I think not. It has come to my attention that many of our pilots will not write up this problem anymore. They feel their complaints are falling on deaf ears; I'm starting to feel the same way. I understand some of our pilots are taking matters into their own hands. This could be problematic at best; and catastrophic in the worst case. At this point I would like to know if you share my desire in finding a safe and reasonable solution to this problem. From a line pilot's perspective the first thing I would recommend is to establish a noise baseline. Issue some of our 757 crews approved DB meters. We need to find out exactly what the noise levels are in flight. From that point we could intelligently address this ongoing noise problem. Clearly this can only be successful if all parties involved agree there is a problem and want to find a solution to this safety of flight issue. I stand ready to assist in any way possible to further the cause of safety.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757 Captain laments the high noise levels in some of his companies aircraft and the lack of any concerted effort by Maintenance to solve the problem.

Narrative: Departing on a cross country flight; we first noticed the excessive cockpit noise on takeoff. We departed utilizing a full power takeoff. I was the pilot flying and was basically unable to hear ATC until after the first power reduction. After cruise altitude I attempted to switch to speaker; this only lasted a short time as I was unable to clearly understand ATC instructions. During all phases of flight I continually needed to confirm ATC instructions with my first officer. He was having no problem hearing every command clearly because he was wearing a thousand dollar noise canceling headset. I put my ear piece back in my left ear and an earplug in my right. I flew the entire trip in this configuration. Without a doubt this was the most fatiguing flight I have flown in years. By the time we landed my head was throbbing; if it got any worse I would have deferred the landing to the First Officer. We were met at the gate by a mechanic to debrief us. Clearly he did not seem to have a grasp on the noise problem; so I called Maintenance. I had an in depth conversation with the lead and he was under the impression that most of the cockpit noise problems were directly related to the RH Recirc fan. I advised him while most RH Recirc fans make the cockpit slightly noisier; which is merely a secondary problem. The Company and the FAA are refusing to address the main problem. We all should be asking ourselves one very important question; what is the MAXIMUM noise DB level permitted in the cockpit in flight? To the best of my knowledge; there is NONE. Therefore the use of Service tip 21-22-00 in my opinion is nothing more than a placebo! As an example; A/C # 1 has a 70 DB sound reading at the gate with the APU and both packs on; and the Rt Recirc fan off; when the fan is turned on it is 4 DB higher for a total of 74 db. This is a failed test and the fan would be DEF leaving the total DB level at 70 DB. A/C #2 has a 90 db sound reading at the gate with the APU and both packs on and the right recirc fan off; when the fan is turned on it is 3 DB higher for a total of 93 DB. This is a successful test; and the airplane would be dispatched as normal with a total DB level at 93. Is this truly the intent of this regulation? I think not. It has come to my attention that many of our pilots will not write up this problem anymore. They feel their complaints are falling on deaf ears; I'm starting to feel the same way. I understand some of our pilots are taking matters into their own hands. This could be problematic at best; and catastrophic in the worst case. At this point I would like to know if you share my desire in finding a safe and reasonable solution to this problem. From a line pilot's perspective the first thing I would recommend is to establish a noise baseline. Issue some of our 757 crews approved DB meters. We need to find out exactly what the noise levels are in flight. From that point we could intelligently address this ongoing noise problem. Clearly this can only be successful if all parties involved agree there is a problem and want to find a solution to this safety of flight issue. I stand ready to assist in any way possible to further the cause of safety.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.