Are switches hearable IRL?

I really love the sound of the switches in some modules. Great work from the sound designers. You can nearly feel them flipping.

BUT:

When flying in an military jet, probably with afterburner engaged, wearing your helmet with headphones, is it realistic to still hear the clicking of a switch or button?

It is possible to 'feel' the click, through the fingers, which is I suspect interpreted by the sensory system as a click.

I own quite a few Honeywell and Cutler Hammer MS part number toggle switches, most of which are the part numbers used in the real Hornet, so I think I can give a fairly accurate response to this.

The mil spec toggles have a very nice “thunk” sound to them when they click in to place, but I doubt you’d be able to hear it with headphones in and a helmet on. Seems a bit embellished IMO, most likely by design.

Disclaimer: I say “doubt” because I’ve never been in a running jet with headphones and helmet on to say for sure.

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As someone who has run A-10 APU and engines in real life with double ear protection you can’t hear them. But you have the physical feedback in the real world that we don’t in the sim. So I’m fine with the exaggerated sounds in the sim.

You can nearly feel them flipping.

something tells me that's the intention ;)

You guys must have fancy sound systems, because with the engines running in DCS I can't hear any of the switches I flip :D

You guys must have fancy sound systems, because with the engines running in DCS I can't hear any of the switches I flip :D

Check Hear in helmet in the sounds and you will hear them.

To answer the OP, no you would not hear them in the cockpit over the avionics, the jet, while wearing hearing protection and helmet.

Yes you can hear switches in the jet with the helmet or a headset on. It all depends on many factors though such as airframe, current flying conditions and so on. My experience is relying on big planes such as E-3 and KC-135 though (wearing a David Clark).

I lean heavily on the side that they wouldn't be possible to hear in cockpit of a fighter with afterburners or a gigantic powerful piston engine etc. But I also completely understand why they are made the way they are in the simulations.

Unlike in real life, we don't get any tactile, physical feedback from anything, so it's nice to have some form of feedback, and they also sound cool, adding to immersion without detracting anything important from realism.

In the F-16 and in the F-117 you can't hear them, even at idle with the buzzing of the avionics, the radios, the double hearing protection, etc. But like other mention, since we have little to no "feel" of the aircraft in DCS, the clinking of switches is necessary (for me) to get some feed back. Sound is one of the few thing we have to tell us if some switch move or if you move a lever. I know it help me for example on the AB for the Viggen or the Landing gear of the MIg-21. The sound help me know is working without me looking.

And odd as it may seem, in a fighter the engines are hardly heard at all; most of the noise is from the airflow and air conditioning system. In the F-4 you could not hear your afterburners lightoff (you could feel them, of course), the engine sound was more vibration than noise. Now, on the runway you could hear your leader/wingman's burners, of course, but in the air you had to be real close (like during a crossover in formation, or close trail) to hear the noise of the engines.

Switches? Not after engine start.

In the F-4 the outside mirrors made the most noise; when you had two of them installed and were cooking along at 540kts/200ft, IT WAS LOUD. But at altitude it was OK.

In my few flights in F-16s one of the things I noticed was how loud the AC was in the rear cockpit. Way louder than the F-4 - you had to wear earplugs under your helmet in the Viper, while in the F-4 you could take your helmet off and talk between cockpits (at cruise, of course). All the in-cockpit videos of F-16s sound so quiet - Fake news!

Vulture