It is not any of the mute symbols, these are M+ and M, right? Please see the symbol in the screenshot below, in the upper left corner of the fs2crew display, looks like =.

 

I'm sure hard mute is not on, and I'm using headphones, so no interference there.

Ah, yes, the "=" symbol means the FS2Crew panels are locked.

 

This way when you switch views, they'll stay open.

 

Please see this page in the manual:

 

http://www.support.f...geid=main_panel

 

 

The locked panels have no bearing on your speech recognition issue.