Flying with small kids

Thanks to all of you that replied to my post, reading your experiences
has been very helpful. I'm thinking of taking my son up soon...he
alwasy says he wants to go flying with Dad when he sees me leaving the
house with my flight bag...I think now I'll give it a shot.

Thanks again!
Bill



On Fri, 06 May 2005 00:58:58 GMT, Bill G
wrote:

Anyone have any experience taking small children flying for the first
time?

Did the kids start screaming the minute the wheels left the pavement
or were they pretty calm?

Bill

The first time I took my (then) 4 year old up, I let my CFI fly the plane
while I sat in back with my daughter. She thought it was cool for a while,
then fell asleep. If you're going to be the one driving, I recommend another
family member be in the plane to handle crowd control until you can get back
down.

Now, my daughter is 7 1/2. She'll pretty much only get in the plane if we're
heading to grandpa's house. She knows how much shorter trip it is. Although,
she's starting to "are we there yet?" in the plane. Guess it's time to step
up..... ;-)



On Fri, 06 May 2005 00:58:58 GMT, Bill G
wrote:

Anyone have any experience taking small children flying for the first
time?

Did the kids start screaming the minute the wheels left the pavement
or were they pretty calm?

Bill

Now, my daughter is 7 1/2. She'll pretty much only get in the plane if
we're
heading to grandpa's house. She knows how much shorter trip it is.
Although,
she's starting to "are we there yet?" in the plane. Guess it's time to
step
up..... ;-)

Everything is relative, no?

My kids fly a lot, and they've been doing that "Are we there yet?" thing for
the last five years or so.

What's really fun is when we have to drive somewhere that we usually fly to;
THEN the "Are we there yets?" start 45 minutes into a 5 hour drive!

I then use the next four hours to constantly remind them of how lucky we are
to fly.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

My kids fly a lot, and they've been doing that "Are
we there yet?" thing for the last five years or so.

That's what the CREW mode is for on the intercom.

If only we wore headsets in the car..........

That's what the CREW mode is for on the intercom.

If only we wore headsets in the car..........

Mary and I have repeatedly tried to press "Pilot Isolate" in the car...to no
avail.

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Steven Barnes wrote:

The first time I took my (then) 4 year old up, I let my CFI fly the plane
while I sat in back with my daughter.

That's a good point. So far, I'm not willing to take our (almost 3 yo) son
up w/o my wife aboard. That gives someone to take care of him while I fly.

- Andrew

That's a good point. So far, I'm not willing to take our (almost 3 yo)
son
up w/o my wife aboard. That gives someone to take care of him while I
fly.

That's the way we do all first flights with kids. There has to be a
"designated parent" on board, just in case.

I've only had one kid start to flip out while on his first ride, and I was
glad his mom was there to calm him down. By the end of the flight, he was
fine, but it sure would have sucked having him sitting behind me whimpering.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

That's the way we do all first flights with kids.Â*Â*ThereÂ*hasÂ*toÂ*beÂ*a
"designated parent" on board, just in case.

I've only had one kid start to flip out while on his first ride, and I was
glad his mom was there to calm him down.Â*Â*ByÂ*theÂ*endÂ*ofÂ*theÂ*flight,Â*heÂ*was
fine, but it sure would have sucked having him sitting behind me
whimpering.

In my case, it's not just first flights. I'm not sure when I'll stop doing
this, but so far it is for every flight.

And it's not just for the melt downs (though of course for that too), but
for little things like "I want water" or "I want pretzels" or "I want to
rewire the audio panel".

- Andrew

P.S. Of course, this also works for me because my wife is my
favorite passenger.

Jay Honeck wrote:

That's a good point. So far, I'm not willing to take our (almost 3 yo)
son
up w/o my wife aboard. That gives someone to take care of him while I
fly.


That's the way we do all first flights with kids. There has to be a
"designated parent" on board, just in case.

I've only had one kid start to flip out while on his first ride, and I was
glad his mom was there to calm him down. By the end of the flight, he was
fine, but it sure would have sucked having him sitting behind me whimpering.

That roll just after lift-off was a little too much, eh? :-)

Matt

Jay Honeck wrote:
That's a good point. So far, I'm not willing to take our (almost 3 yo)
son
up w/o my wife aboard. That gives someone to take care of him while I
fly.


That's the way we do all first flights with kids. There has to be a
"designated parent" on board, just in case.
snip

I'm considering whether or not to take my 5 year old up,
since it would be in a Citabria, where I'd be in the front,
and he'd be in the back, all by himself.
But again, he might just love it. I suppose I could monitor him
closely through start, taxi, and run-up, and if he feels ok,
then we'd just do a few quick laps around the pattern.