Flying with small kids

My 6 year old son has only flown a couple of times with me, and he enjoys
it. However, on the second trip he turned a little green around the gills
and forced an early end to the flight. He is anxious for another flight
for which I will oblige. :-)

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

--
Mike Flyin'8
PP-ASEL
Temecula, CA
http://flying.4alexanders.com

My two year old had his first ride about eight months ago, and he's now
completely airplane crazy. He loves going to the airport, and going up
in the plane, and most of the time he'll even keep his headset on,
although it's a problem getting him to keep it on permanently. My nine
month old has also been up a couple of times in the Saratoga, and with
him, we struggled to find a good way to protect his ear. The latest
idea is one of those caps with the ear covers, with some soundproofing
sown into the flaps. We'll see how it works!

Re screaming, neither has screamed much at all. Someone told me that if
they do start, just keep climbing, and as the air things, they'll go to
sleep........ Not had to try that yet, thankfully!

Re ear pain problems, I give the oldest candy on the way down, and my
wife nurses the youngest. Also, I keep the descent to 500 fpm. Again,
so far, so good.

For strapping them in, I just use their car seats. The easiest
technique is actually lift the car seat out of the truck with the kid
still in it, and strap it in the plane as is. This is particulatly
useful in reverse when you get back, as they'll often be asleep after
an evening flight.

Don Hammer wrote:
Had my 5 year old grandson start crying at about 2500 ft. Since then
I teach them how to clear their ears before flying. Never had a kid
that didn't love it.

Well, my stepson started blubbering once. Said he was homesick (we were about 2
hours away). Next thing I know, my wife is crying too. We were at 11,500'
crossing over the Dulles class-B at the time. I put it down to hypoxia.

George Patterson
There's plenty of room for all of God's creatures. Right next to the
mashed potatoes.

mindenpilot wrote:

"Bill G" wrote in message
...

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


How small?
I have 7, 4 and 2 year olds.
They all like to fly. No crying at all.
However, they have more interest when in the front seat, and tend to fall
asleep in the back.
The littlest one tends to take her headset off until she falls asleep.
When on trips they get bored easily.
When tooling around the area, the love steep turns, etc.

Adam
N7966L
Beech Super III


I have over 200 EAA Young Eagle flights and not a problem with any of
them. As we taxi out I explain what will be happening. I also have 3
grandkids that really like to fly with grandpa, 10, 5, and 3. The 3 year
old has the most fun. I do put books in the back seat to keep them
occupied until the drone of the engine puts them to sleep. I made some
adapters that fit my adult headsets, so the headsets fit on the younger
heads. That has really helped. My biggest thought was that they would
want to pull the headsets off, but that has not been a problem.

--
Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP

George Patterson wrote:
Don Hammer wrote:

Had my 5 year old grandson start crying at about 2500 ft. Since then
I teach them how to clear their ears before flying. Never had a kid
that didn't love it.


Well, my stepson started blubbering once. Said he was homesick (we were
about 2 hours away). Next thing I know, my wife is crying too. We were
at 11,500' crossing over the Dulles class-B at the time. I put it down
to hypoxia.

I thought hypoxia was supposed to make you happy? :-)

Matt

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

"Ross Richardson" wrote in message
news
mindenpilot wrote:

I have over 200 EAA Young Eagle flights and not a problem with any of
them. As we taxi out I explain what will be happening. I also have 3
grandkids that really like to fly with grandpa, 10, 5, and 3. The 3 year
old has the most fun. I do put books in the back seat to keep them
occupied until the drone of the engine puts them to sleep. I made some
adapters that fit my adult headsets, so the headsets fit on the younger
heads. That has really helped. My biggest thought was that they would
want to pull the headsets off, but that has not been a problem.

Do you give them gum to chew?

I used that when my kids were four and up and never had a problem.

Only problem was when they became teenagers and started using Walkman
headsets and started bouncing to the music -- wrecked havoc with the W&B.
:~)

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..........