Flying and the New Family

That sounds like what my logbook will look like in a couple of years. Thanks
for the story. I am hoping to take my son up soon but I want to wait until
he either keeps his earplugs in or keeps a headset on his head. At 1 year
and 4 months it's damn near impossible unless he's sleeping.

Living on the approach end of one of the airport's runways, my wife and I
have already conditioned him to point to every airplane and wave to it as it
goes by. He does it quite a bit considering how busy my airport is.

Regards,

Marco


"EDR" wrote in message
...

Marco,
I went from 150 hours, the year before my first child was born, to 17
the year after he was born. My second child was born a year and a half
later. My log book shows 16, 5, 3, 25, 13, 18, 40, 39, 93, 81, and 77
so far this year. The years with 13 and 18 were spent outside the
continental USA. As the children got older, the time to go flying
became more available. As you can see from the last three years, the
hours have gone up as family travel increased. The last three years
have been almost exclusively high performance rental ($100+), so as the
aircraft speed went up, the travel time went down.

My situation is different. I have been MR MOM since my second child was
born and I have a spouse that travelled as part of her job, so I was on
call 24/7, so to speak. I wouldn't trade my experience for anything,
though!

When my wife's father died out of state, a friend loaned me his
airplane to get my wife to her mother's side. The kids were 4 and 2, it
was the second child's first flight. For the trip home, I gave each of
the kids a grease pencil and they had fun drawing on the rear windows
for and hour and a half. After that trip, every time we drove past the
airport, the 2 year old would gleefully ask, "Daddy, are we going
flying again?" Music to my ears!




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I'd love to take them along but my wife's about 6 months pregnant and my son
won't keep his earplugs in his ears nor will he keep the headset on his
head!

Maybe that's when I'll be able to fly more. I expect some further
degradation of flight hours once the second one is born.

Thanks!

Marco

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:y%qCb.525884$Fm2.506470@attbi_s04...
Thoughts?

Take 'em along!

My son has been flying since he was a toddler, and my daughter has flown
since birth. It's somewhat of a military operation, getting them loaded
in
the plane -- but that's no different then EVERYTHING else in your life,
with
little kids.

Just takes more planning....

And it *does* pass. To be replaced by whining, which, in turn, is
supplanted by surliness.

I can hardly wait to see what's next! :-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"






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I'd love to take them along but my wife's about 6 months pregnant and my
son
won't keep his earplugs in his ears nor will he keep the headset on his
head!

Well, Mary flew when she was pregnant, right up till the week before
delivery.

When my kids wouldn't keep their ear plugs in, we would simply tie their
hoods tightly around their faces. This effectively kept those chubby little
fingers from removing the earplugs, and all was well. Actually, we found
that they would usually fall fast asleep within minutes after take-off.

In fact, they often still do, at ages 10 and 13.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
"Marco L" beach321(at)ix.netcom.com wrote in message
...

Maybe that's when I'll be able to fly more. I expect some further
degradation of flight hours once the second one is born.

Thanks!

Marco

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:y%qCb.525884$Fm2.506470@attbi_s04...
Thoughts?

Take 'em along!

My son has been flying since he was a toddler, and my daughter has flown
since birth. It's somewhat of a military operation, getting them loaded
in
the plane -- but that's no different then EVERYTHING else in your life,
with
little kids.

Just takes more planning....

And it *does* pass. To be replaced by whining, which, in turn, is
supplanted by surliness.

I can hardly wait to see what's next! :-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"






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Ya know, that tight hood idea is a good one! I must have read scores of
"flying your kids" threads but I must have missed that little gem. I must
try that when I get home...

Thanks,

Marco

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:cS9Db.353024$Dw6.1160500@attbi_s02...
I'd love to take them along but my wife's about 6 months pregnant and my
son
won't keep his earplugs in his ears nor will he keep the headset on his
head!

Well, Mary flew when she was pregnant, right up till the week before
delivery.

When my kids wouldn't keep their ear plugs in, we would simply tie their
hoods tightly around their faces. This effectively kept those chubby
little
fingers from removing the earplugs, and all was well. Actually, we found
that they would usually fall fast asleep within minutes after take-off.

In fact, they often still do, at ages 10 and 13.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
"Marco L" beach321(at)ix.netcom.com wrote in message
...

Maybe that's when I'll be able to fly more. I expect some further
degradation of flight hours once the second one is born.

Thanks!

Marco

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:y%qCb.525884$Fm2.506470@attbi_s04...
Thoughts?

Take 'em along!

My son has been flying since he was a toddler, and my daughter has
flown
since birth. It's somewhat of a military operation, getting them
loaded
in
the plane -- but that's no different then EVERYTHING else in your
life,
with
little kids.

Just takes more planning....

And it *does* pass. To be replaced by whining, which, in turn, is
supplanted by surliness.

I can hardly wait to see what's next! :-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"






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News==----
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Newsgroups
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Encryption
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Marco Leon wrote:
Hi all. I've noticed a considerable decrease in flight hours
since my
son was born a little over a year ago. My wife is also 5
months
pregnant with another so flying time may suffer further
decline. I'm
wondering...what are some of your experiences during the
life-changing event of a new family and flying? Did you
start flying
more often after the kids hit a certain age? What did you do
to find
more time?
...

My daughter was born June 29th, since then every time the
weather looked good enough to go flying I was just too tired
to go. A week ago Sunday the weather was great, I did not feel
exhausted for the first time in five months and the flying
club had a Cherokee available. I booked it and told my wife
that I would just do circuits because I have not gone for a
while. When I got to the airport the instructors thought it
would be good to have one of them along for a few circuits,
since I have not flown with an instructor for the last six or
seven years I thought it was a good idea too. So we did one
touch and go, one soft field landing and a practice emergency
landing, after that I did four more circuits on my own. The
whole thing felt great. It was great being in the air again,
and it was great knowing that when I did not feel safe enough
to fly for the last five months I did not have to. Now I'm
hoping to get up in the air at least once every two months and
take my daughter up after he second birthday (my wife is
worried about putting headphones on her before then).

--
Peter Weaver
Weaver Consulting Services Inc.
Canadian VAR for CHARON-VAX
www.weaverconsulting.ca

"Marco Leon" mleon(at)optonline.net wrote in message ...
Hi all. I've noticed a considerable decrease in flight hours since my son
was born a little over a year ago. My wife is also 5 months pregnant with
another so flying time may suffer further decline. I'm wondering...what are
some of your experiences during the life-changing event of a new family and
flying? Did you start flying more often after the kids hit a certain age?

Yeah. It got easier after our daughter was sleeping pretty solidly
through the night. About a year, even better after two years.
Frankly it was about 3 years before I really started to feel
normal again as far as energy level and such and we got back to
being able to complete projects around the house and so forth.

And yes, Jay, we took her along, but frankly 1) toting along
a child in diapers adds considerably to the logistics, even if
"mommy is the kitchen" and bottles/formula aren't a concern
2) working full time and parenting full time is *tiring* and
there were plenty of times when I had time to fly, but was just
too *tired* 3) IMO when a child is small (say less than 2 or
so) if one expects them to *like* flying, someone had better
make it their primary job to tend to the child in the plane.

Now the problem is less "tired", and more that it seems every
fall/winter is spent fighting non-stop family wide colds. I'm
hoping this, too, shall pass some day.

What did you do to find more time?

I don't have a good answer to this. It was hard. Still is.
Frankly with both of us working full time, I would have been
kinda ticked if my husband was taking off to fly early mornings
or late nights more than 1-2 a week or so. It seemed as though
there was plenty to do to prepare for the next day with both of
us "on it" every bit we could spare.

I'm not sure how it would have been different if I were a SAHM.
Easier to spare the husband in the morning and harder in the
evening, I'm guessing.

Good luck!
Sydney

EDR wrote in message ...

When my wife's father died out of state, a friend loaned me his
airplane to get my wife to her mother's side. The kids were 4 and 2, it
was the second child's first flight. For the trip home, I gave each of
the kids a grease pencil and they had fun drawing on the rear windows
for and hour and a half.

Gah! Glad it wasn't our plane...

Sydney (three words: COLOR WONDER MARKERS)

"Snowbird" wrote in message
om...
"Marco Leon" mleon(at)optonline.net wrote in message
...
Hi all. I've noticed a considerable decrease in flight hours since my
son
was born a little over a year ago. My wife is also 5 months pregnant
with
another so flying time may suffer further decline. I'm wondering...what
are
some of your experiences during the life-changing event of a new family
and
flying? Did you start flying more often after the kids hit a certain
age?

Yeah. It got easier after our daughter was sleeping pretty solidly
through the night. About a year, even better after two years.
Frankly it was about 3 years before I really started to feel
normal again as far as energy level and such and we got back to
being able to complete projects around the house and so forth.

And yes, Jay, we took her along, but frankly 1) toting along
a child in diapers adds considerably to the logistics, even if
"mommy is the kitchen" and bottles/formula aren't a concern
2) working full time and parenting full time is *tiring* and
there were plenty of times when I had time to fly, but was just
too *tired* 3) IMO when a child is small (say less than 2 or
so) if one expects them to *like* flying, someone had better
make it their primary job to tend to the child in the plane.

Now the problem is less "tired", and more that it seems every
fall/winter is spent fighting non-stop family wide colds. I'm
hoping this, too, shall pass some day.

Don't hold your breath...it'll be MANY years.

Tom -- Dad of three in the "estrogen ocean"; daughters now 23, 21, and 18.

Now the problem is less "tired", and more that it seems every
fall/winter is spent fighting non-stop family wide colds. I'm
hoping this, too, shall pass some day.

Don't hold your breath...it'll be MANY years.

We must have good genes, or something, as it's rare that anyone in our
family is ill. And I don't think there's been a time yet where we've all
been sick at the same time.

We all take multi-vitamins every day, FWIW, since we know our diets could be
better...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:


And I don't think there's been a time yet where we've all
been sick at the same time.


Believe me, it happens. My son, who was three at the time, came down
with the
flu about Dec 29 or 30 one year. Come New Year's Day, he was fine and raring
to go. Mom and I weren't! (We'd caught the bug.) I got the early shift,
parking myself
in front of the bowl games and getting the kid fed now and then. About
two o'clock,
woke the wife and told her I couldn't go any longer without a nap - her
turn!

The ironic part is the fact that we were living with my parents at the
time, but they
couldn't look after Ryan because they had gone to visit my Aunt and
Uncle. We
found out later, though, that even if they had been home, they were both
sick too.

Rich Lemert