Children as Passengers

I don't by any means claim to be an expert as I just took my kids up for the
first time this past weekend (see previous post). I waited a while before
taking them up mostly due to the fact that I wasn't getting in as much
flying as I used to with the expanding family. I wanted to get some more
hours under my belt. My son--who is three--kept his headset on the entire
time. I used a pair of Lightspeed QFR Solos for him and the Sigtronics child
headsets for my one-year old daughter. She promptly took off the Sigs after
40 seconds. We had a few sets of the soft earplugs as back-up and she kept
them on for 1.5 hours after which she took one of them out. The fact that
she fell asleep on climb-out helped with the ear plug placement. People have
recommended using the baby hats that cover the ears to prevent them from
taking out the plugs but it was an 87 degree day so we opted not to use it.

What helped after the first hour was the portable DVD player we brought
along. We have a music input with the Garmin 340 audio panel so I used a
simple stereo 1/8" plug out of the headset jack into the music input and
voila, Dora the Explorer through our headphones. However, whenever there was
chatter on ATC (which is quite often on a nice day in NY), the audio would
mute. The "Pilot Isolation" function took care of that (as well as preserved
my concentration).

As I said in my other post, I put a remark in the flight plan stating I had
children on board requesting shallow descents and like others, I've found
that ATC was more than willing to accomodate. My kids were much better than
I expected but in retrospect, they pretty much acted the way they do in our
minivan. Their behavior during long car tripsmay be a good indication of
their aircraft demeanor. So if you're taking other people's kids up,
discreetly ask them about how they like car trips.

Guys like Rick Durden and Jay Honeck have much more experience than I do so
definitely read Rick's article from AvWeb.

Marco Leon


"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...
What is the collective experience on flying young children? I realize
each
child is different, but is there an age at which *most* children become
decent passengers in light aircraft?

How do you address protecting a young child's ears?

Stories? Dos? Don'ts?

On Mon, 08 Aug 2005 19:17:08 -0400, Kyle Boatright wrote:

What is the collective experience on flying young children? I realize each
child is different, but is there an age at which *most* children become
decent passengers in light aircraft?

How do you address protecting a young child's ears?

Stories? Dos? Don'ts?

My older brother and I both flew as children with my father as pilot. We
would fly from Dallas to New Mexico in a V-tail Bo. Neither of us
wore any type of headset. My hearing is excellent today. I suffered no
damage. In fact, I have "doggy-hearing" in the upper range.

As for comfort, the the plane was a time machine for me. Shortly after
takeoff, I couldn't force my eyes to stay open. Next thing, I'd wake
when my father throttled back for a landing; or if screaming started to
my right. As for my brother, the plane became a vomit extraction
device. Every trip, he would get motion sick and vomit throughout the
trip. Occationally, he would get sinus problems and get some serious
head/sinus aches during the flight from the change in elevation. This can
be tricky because it can sometimes be hard to tell if your young child has
something like that going on. If you children suffer from even mild sinus
issues, I suggest you give something for it before the flight. Likewise,
keep giving it as directed throughout the flight. You don't want it to
wear off and cause problems one you're going. Of course, it sure doesn't
hurt to travel prepared, so take something with you...just in case.

Please take my warning of sinus problems to heart. My father remembers
trying to concentrate to land with a kid screaming at the top of lungs in
the back seat and an angry wife that wouldn't stop complaining all the way
down. Surprisingly, we lived...we'll, the jury is still out on my father...

Now then, having said all that, I charish the memories I have of flying
with my father as a very young child. I wouldn't trade
them...well...I might trade for another brother in the seat to my
right...


Cheers,

Greg

"Greg Copeland" wrote

We
would fly from Dallas to New Mexico in a V-tail Bo. Neither of us
wore any type of headset. My hearing is excellent today. I suffered no
damage. In fact, I have "doggy-hearing" in the upper range.

How old are you? Hearing sometimes does not start its decline, until you
get older.

Power tools and large music groups (225 brass and drums crammed into a
smallish band room at Ohio State) has been the bane of my hearing. As I
recall, sometimes hearing loss is hereditary, isn't it?

As for now, I hope you did get away without damaging your ears. Protect
them now, though. Backs and ears; protect them, protect them, protect them!

Soapbox=off g
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:
Power tools and large music groups (225 brass and drums crammed into a
smallish band room at Ohio State) has been the bane of my hearing.

Just come out and say it..
"THE BEST DAMN BAND IN THE LAND", the pride of the Buckeyes, The Ohio
State University Marching Band!

john smith wrote in message ...
Morgans wrote:
Power tools and large music groups (225 brass and drums crammed into a
smallish band room at Ohio State) has been the bane of my hearing.

Just come out and say it..
"THE BEST DAMN BAND IN THE LAND", the pride of the Buckeyes, The Ohio
State University Marching Band!

Heh.

- Rick, ex-pat Iowa Hawkeye, former member, "THE VERY BEST BAND...IN THE
WHOLE DAMN LAND"

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 00:51:09 -0400, Morgans wrote:


"Greg Copeland" wrote

We
would fly from Dallas to New Mexico in a V-tail Bo. Neither of us
wore any type of headset. My hearing is excellent today. I suffered no
damage. In fact, I have "doggy-hearing" in the upper range.

How old are you? Hearing sometimes does not start its decline, until you
get older.

Power tools and large music groups (225 brass and drums crammed into a
smallish band room at Ohio State) has been the bane of my hearing. As I
recall, sometimes hearing loss is hereditary, isn't it?

As for now, I hope you did get away without damaging your ears. Protect
them now, though. Backs and ears; protect them, protect them, protect them!

Soapbox=off g

Hehe. I'm 34 now. I now wear a nice ANR headset when I fly. I do
protect my hearing. My father's hearing is going but that's from too many
..44 mag rounds, hunting rifles, black pounder "cannons" (.68 cal),
etc...and probably a tad too many country western bars to boot.

I did not mean to imply that your hearing can not be damaged from flying.
rather, I meant to imply infrequent flying as a child certainly did not
damage my hearing...nor would I expect it to.

Cheers,

Greg

"john smith" wrote

Just come out and say it..
"THE BEST DAMN BAND IN THE LAND", the pride of the Buckeyes, The Ohio
State University Marching Band!

You got it! TBDBITL !

Are you a past member?
--
Jim in NC

"Rick" wrote

Heh.

- Rick, ex-pat Iowa Hawkeye, former member, "THE VERY BEST BAND...IN THE
WHOLE DAMN LAND"


What??? The golden blob, You mean? Harrumph! g
--
Jim in NC

"Greg Copeland" wrote

I did not mean to imply that your hearing can not be damaged from flying.
rather, I meant to imply infrequent flying as a child certainly did not
damage my hearing...nor would I expect it to.

That would be contrary to the studies I have seen, about hearing loss. I
don't believe that it matters if you are a child, or if you only did it a
few times.

If you were in the noisy environment for the length of time necessary (for
the amount of decibels present) for damage to occur, your hearing was
damaged. Since you still hear well, you just did not lose a high percentage
of your hearing.

Just think how much better you could hear if you hadn't lost that little
bit, way back when? Dogs would be wishing they could hear like you do! g
--
Jim in NC

"john smith" wrote
Just come out and say it..
"THE BEST DAMN BAND IN THE LAND", the pride of the Buckeyes, The Ohio
State University Marching Band!

Morgans wrote:
You got it! TBDBITL !
Are you a past member?

No, I just live in Columbus.
This season's first OSU marching band performances were July 29-30 at
the Columbus Symphony Orchestra's Picnic with the Pops Concert.