First flying experience for young child

On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 00:50:05 -0400, Dave wrote:

Howdy all,

I have a young daughter (currently 17 months old) who I am looking
forward to taking up in a plane some day. I have a private pilot's
license and typically fly C172s, Pipers, etc.

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.

Hey Dave,

Never too young! Took my nephew up when he was 1 1/2 years old. All he
does now is walk and talks airplanes much to my sisters chagrin. I think
he has been smitten by the aviation bug.

Car seat should fit the bill. I had bought him a child size headset which
he wears without any problems.

His first "cross country" was when he turned two years old. His father
remembered everything except for something to drink. Kids I think will
dehydrate quicker.

We put him in the back seat and toward the end of his first cross country,
he did get figity, but we just pulled the microphone plug out so he was no
longer a distraction for listening to ATC.

So, in a nutshell, if flight is longer then 1/2 hour, food, drink and maybe
a hand held toy. My newphew was happy looking out the window at the clouds
go by so he didn't need a toy.

Allen

Dave wrote:

Howdy all,

I have a young daughter (currently 17 months old) who I am looking
forward to taking up in a plane some day. I have a private pilot's
license and typically fly C172s, Pipers, etc.

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?


Put her in a car seat and you have a 90% chance the kid will fall right
asleep immediately aftert takeoff.

My 2 boys were 6 months and 4 months old on their first flights. The oldest
will be 3 on Sept 11 and he wears a child headset from Softcom. We got it
at avshop.com. Sometimes he wants to wear it, sometimes he doesn't.

http://www.avshop.com/catalog/produc...categoryid=127

For the youngest, we just use some very soft earplugs and either a cap for
headband to help keep them in. We've used the Macks silicone earplugs a few
times, but I don't personally think that putting in the adult size are very
comfortable to my own ears, so we've stopped using them on the kids.

For the seats, we just use the seats out of the trucks after we checked that
they had the sticker on them that says something about being "approved for
airplane usage".

"Dave" *m wrote in message
...
Howdy all,

I have a young daughter (currently 17 months old) who I am looking
forward to taking up in a plane some day. I have a private pilot's
license and typically fly C172s, Pipers, etc.

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?

Thanks in advance!
Dave M.

Many headset manufacturers make child headsets. I have a couple of Softcomm
child headsets. They are useful not only for children, but also adults that
have very small heads (you know who you are).

Car seats work very well in most small planes.

When you have small children on board, make your descents very slowly. The
planes are unpressurized. I know of one guy who ruptured both of his kids'
eardrums by hot dogging the descent.

Small children have short attention spans, so don't make the flight too
long. If you are taking them on a long trip, make sure they have something
to do.

Kids like airplanes because they have not yet watched enough Hollywood junk
to make them afraid. They think it is cool that every seat is a window seat.

"Dave" wrote in message What else did you do to make the flight as
enjoyable as possible?

I take my 2 year-old with me on trips quite often. On one trip he sat on the
laps of the swimsuit models and drew pictures with them. While deplaning,
one model asked if she could take him home. I replied it was a package deal.
The deal fell through.

D.

Capt.Doug wrote:
I take my 2 year-old with me on trips quite often. On one trip he sat
on the laps of the swimsuit models and drew pictures with them. While
deplaning, one model asked if she could take him home. I replied it
was a package deal. The deal fell through.

Dang. I was rooting for you. You'll get 'em next time!


--
____________________________
Ah, Young Grasshopper.
Sometimes it is eyes that blind a man.

Make sure you use a car seat and PROTECT HER EARS, even to the extent of
using a headset AND earplugs.

see:
http://www.earplugsonline.com/index.html
http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/erme.asp\
http://www.hear-more.com/musician.htm



"Dave" *m wrote in message
...
Howdy all,

I have a young daughter (currently 17 months old) who I am looking
forward to taking up in a plane some day. I have a private pilot's
license and typically fly C172s, Pipers, etc.

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?

Thanks in advance!
Dave M.

My Grandson is crazy about airplanes. Before he was 2 he'd sit and
"read" my aviation magazines, turning the pages from front to back.
He has a bunch of toy planes and loves them. He likes to look at
planes flying.

Right after his 2nd birthday I took him for a flight in the 172. I
put him (in his car seat) in back and his Mom beside him. He enjoyed
the flight, although he kept trying to take his headset off and he did
fall asleep after about 30 minutes.

The part he still talks about was the preflight inspection because he
got to walk around the airplane and touch it everywhere.

- J.O.-

On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 00:50:05 -0400, Dave *m wrote:

Howdy all,

I have a young daughter (currently 17 months old) who I am looking
forward to taking up in a plane some day. I have a private pilot's
license and typically fly C172s, Pipers, etc.

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?

Thanks in advance!
Dave M.

John Ousterhout wrote:

The part he still talks about was the preflight inspection because he
got to walk around the airplane and touch it everywhere.

Hey, thanks!

My Alexander just passed his second birthday. He's flown with us a few
times, and is mostly in the "falls asleep" class for now.

But I've always taken care to preflight before he arrives, thinking it best
to "keep him moving". You've caused me to rethink that.

- Andrew

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