First flying experience for young child

Dave *m wrote in message . ..

I have a young daughter (currently 17 months old) ...
I feel she's too young right now, but as soon as she's old enough to
understand most anything we (my wife and I) say to her, we will
consider taking her for a ride.

Has anyone else taking their youngin' for their first flight? What
about seating (carseat compatibility in abovementioned planes)? Are
there headsets for smaller heads? (I didn't see any at Sporty's, at
first look). What else did you do to make the flight as enjoyable as
possible?

Hi Dave,

I'm not sure what you're looking for in age? We took my daughter for
her first airplane flight when she was 12 weeks old. Basically as soon
as she could look out the window, she seemed to enjoy looking at
clouds, boats on the river below, etc. Her major complaint is "tiggerplane
hurts my ears".

We started out using a high-quality muff-style shooting hearing protector
(Tasco Golden Eagle is one brand that will work, Peltor something II is
another). These adjust small width-wise, and we filled in the top with
soft foam covered with knit fabric (top of an old cotton sock will do if
you're not skilled in sewing). If you want your child to be able to talk
on the intercom or hear you talk, several headset makers make a child
size version. I know Sigtronics does, and Peltor. But we use again,
and adult headset with the top filled in as necessary. At age 4, no
filling-in.

Bring something for your child to suck during climb-out and descent.
Bottle, juice box, sucker depending on age. If the nose is running administer
decongestant.

Carseats are a "measure it and see" thing. Not obvious -- make sure
seatbelt in the plane will actually fit when you're checking. Our
seatbelts fit the infant seat and the forward-facing carseat but don't
fit the same seat when used as a booster. We had to get a different
booster. You may need some foam "noodles" and tightly-rolled towels
to get a good fit, so bring along a stash when you test the fit. In
our experience, the thing most likely to have a problem is the rear-seat
passenger next to the child.

My daughter was 4 before we started leaving her in back by herself.
Before that one of us always sat next to her to take care of diaper
changes/feeding snacks/amusement (maybe not an issue if you're only
talking short hops).

I'm trying to remember how old our daughter was the first time we let
her sit up front and touch the controls. 2 1/2 or 3 I think. She
still can't see over the panel. Anyway, the point: put the child in
front only with the greatest of caution and a high degree of confidence
that they've reached the age where they will listen to you reliably.
And just in case one of us rides in back with instructions to pop
the seatbelt and haul her into the back at the first sign of not listening.
I have yet to find a carseat that will fit in the front of the plane
and not interfere with the yoke. We just use cushions to boost her to
the height where the shoulder belt fits reasonably.

Hope this helps, any other questions please ask.

Cheers,
Sydney