#having seen and heard a harrier jet at an airshow i can tell you they are LOUD

[tyrantofthefirmament]

Planes make a lot of noise when flying, so how's that work with you? Do you just filter the noise out? Do new robots have trouble with it? "Ah fuck I can't hear you OVER MYSELF-"

When we are flying we use internal comms. Shifting from speaking to comms and vice-versa happens automatically when we transform, and we actually have to remember to speak out loud on purpose if, Primus forbid, we had a passenger we needed to talk to. If someone were standing right beside a hovering Seeker's alt mode and they were not on comms, they would not be able to hear us over our engine noise. They'd also likely be knocked over from the thrust. Cybertronians can filter background noise rather well, but the sheer difference in levels between the loudest yelling and jet engines would be far more than even Soundwave could parse. Grounders can speak while in alt mode since their engines are no louder than normal talking.

Very young NewSparks do sometimes forget they need to switch to comms while in root mode in order to be heard by those in alt mode or in very noisy areas. Whether we bother to switch does depend on the noise level and who you are trying to talk to. There is a not-untrue stereotype that Seekers talk loudly, and it is because Vos had a background roar of jet noise at all times and we often just talked over it rather than only using comms. In the truly loud areas of the city though, such as outdoor decks near skylanes or arenas, we did use comms. Everyone would be conversing but it would be silent. That's also a reason wingspeak is so prevalent and important for Seekers, if we want to be understood and not misheard.