Kids and flying

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kawizx62003

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kawizx62003
I am wondering at what age did any of you start taking your kids along on flights. My only guess is once they can wear a headset???
 
Took my son when he was almost 2. He was very excited, then freaked out at engine start. He calmed down before we started taxiing then truly enjoyed the trip to Grandma's house and back. Each leg was about 2 hours in the back of a C-172SP.

One thing I did as a matter of safety as much as for his own familiarity was I strapped his carseat in the back. Figured he would feel secure with the 3 point harness. It was a bugger to install, though. Just used the seat belts for the return leg. He is a little taller for his age and it fit him better than I would have thought.
 
I bet that is a good memory. I was a little worried about noise issues in a smaller aircraft.
 
Yeah that is very true. I am NOT in that group. I am still in the training phases but when I get my license I will be excited to bring the kids (one is 9 mos, the other due in August). Now as far as what my wife says, it may not matter what I think. Which makes me wonder now, how many hours did any of you have before flying yougins?
 
kawizx62003 said:
I bet that is a good memory. I was a little worried about noise issues in a smaller aircraft.
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Yes, it is a GREAT memory complete with pictures of him in the back as well as helping load the plane for the return leg.

I did purchase some ear muffs, but he wouldn't keep them on. Also had some kid headphones for his ipad movie, although those did nothing for the noise. It really didn't bother him, though.
 
My very earliest memory is of my dad, stacking parachutes on the seat of a
P-11 (on floats) so I could see out the window. It was my 3rd birthday. I won't give you a date, but Truman was still president. This was back in the days before (most) cars had seatbelts, and the idea of the car seat was years away. Nobody gave a second thought to tossing a kid onto the seat of a plane and boring holes in the sky.
Unfortunately, so the story is told, I was so excited and happy about the ride, I kept shouting Airplane! Airplane! Airplane! over and over again when we got home. Mom wasn't a fan of airplanes, and dad was in the doghouse for weeks. It would be almost a year before I got my second ride.
 
Shepherd said:
Unfortunately, so the story is told, I was so excited and happy about the ride, I kept shouting Airplane! Airplane! Airplane! over and over again when we got home. Mom wasn't a fan of airplanes, and dad was in the doghouse for weeks. It would be almost a year before I got my second ride.
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My daughter tattled on me taking her for a lap around the bay after pre-k when she was 4. Same effect ---> doghouse
 
My first instructor had his toddler in a car seat in the back during my final Pvt checkride prep lessons.

No pressure... Don't kill my kid. Better yet, don't wake him up with your bad landings. ;)

That "kid" is now a 20-something college-graduate CFI.

Damn I hate how old that story makes me feel. ;)
 
Son #1 @ 11 weeks

Son #2 @ about 6 months, with his 2-1/2 year old brother flying in the copilot seat and mom in back.

For the first time a few weeks ago, now at ages 4 and 6, we trust them to fly together in the back seat, and mom got to fly up front again. Of course the older brother wanted to (and got to) fly copilot on the way back.

Jeff
 
Take my 4 year old and 9 month old with me often. The baby was born in sept and we flew to Boston for Thanksgiving.
 
My oldest… less than 2 weeks

My son… maybe a month

My youngest… 6 years

(A couple of months after I had met her mother)

They all grew up in airplanes
 
Does conception in a 172 of your first born count? :devil:
 
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We took our son on his first flight in the Aztec at about a month, and at 4 months we took him on a 17 hour round trip jaunt to Newfoundland in the 310. We do have a passive headset for him, although now at 9 months he's not wearing it too well anymore.
 
Foxhole said:
Does conception in a 172 of your first born count? :devil:
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Haha. Along that line of thinking, I flew my pregnant wife to Dallas (we lived in Houston at the time) for our first ultrasound. What a great day!!! So he was about -5 months old.
 
My little one was a year old, would have been sooner but the airplane wasn't ready. She's been a few times now.

I didn't get to go until I was potty trained for at least a year. Grandpa didn't do diapers. Lol


-VanDy
 
My daughter was 1, my son was 4.

They are now 19 and 22. We flew EVERYWHERE with them, coast to coast.

Good times. :yesnod:
 
Jay Honeck said:
My daughter was 1, my son was 4.

They are now 19 and 22. We flew EVERYWHERE with them, coast to coast.

Good times. :yesnod:
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Sounds pretty similar to my upbringing! They must have turned out well!! I can't wait to take my daughter to some pancake breakfast and other flyins this summer!!


-VanDy
 
5 1/2 months
I was much more worried about it than my daughter was.
Mom gets to sit in the back and complain that once she gets her ASEL (she's got Glider, checkride at 8+ months pregnant) I'm going to be the one stuck in the economy class.
Snowball's chance in hell :rolleyes:
 

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moonshine said:
5 1/2 months
I was much more worried about it than my daughter was.
Mom gets to sit in the back and complain that once she gets her ASEL (she's got Glider, checkride at 8+ months pregnant) I'm going to be the one stuck in the economy class.
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My wife's been sitting in back with the baby (I can't nurse him) and I know it's not particularly fun for her. I've heard this as the reason for many people upgrading to a cabin class - makes the spouse happier.
 
My daughter was four when we started and loved it.

I will say that you should probably avoid dinner flights in bumpy conditions until they're old enough to tell you when they're not feeling well. :rolleyes2:
 
A few weeks. We took each new baby around to meet the grandparents.
 
10 weeks for the 1st, 9 months for the second. Baby in the car seat with mom in back. Didn't see any difference than in the car. I recall they were around 3 before I'd take them up with out an extra set of hands. No drama at all.
 
6 and 7 here.. Was THANKFUL for the ISO on the intercom. was their first airplane ride ever. I proposed to their mom in that plane. On another note, my bose A20 reduces cockpit noise so well, i could still hear them talking excitedly in the back seat as i was talking to ATC
 
This is my main motivation for going after my pilots license. I have 2 kids (5 & 3) and want to experience some great trips together before they grow up.

I was thinking about them with headsets. Will their voice be transmitted on the mic to ATC if they talk at the same time as me? Can just imagine making a call on the radio and having my 3 year old start screaming.
 
JasonM said:
I was thinking about them with headsets. Will their voice be transmitted on the mic to ATC if they talk at the same time as me? Can just imagine making a call on the radio and having my 3 year old start screaming.
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It probably depends on how the audio panel is wired, but in our plane only the person who pushes the PTT gets transmitted, so while your mike will pick up the screaming kid across the cockpit, the shriek that you hear via the intercom does not get transmitted to ATC.

I don't have 'crew isolate', so if my kids are doing their 'he's touching me' routine, I can't hear ATC. So the rule is if I raise my hand, everyone is quiet, luckily they are old enough to listen.
 
2 months (was too exhausted before then..). She's been flying ever since.
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JasonM said:
This is my main motivation for going after my pilots license. I have 2 kids (5 & 3) and want to experience some great trips together before they grow up.

I was thinking about them with headsets. Will their voice be transmitted on the mic to ATC if they talk at the same time as me? Can just imagine making a call on the radio and having my 3 year old start screaming.
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I've never seen an audio panel that transmitted passengers voices as well. I would make the investment in a GMA340 so that you can hit "isolate" (pilot or crew). Better to train them to be quiet, but some days you just need to hit the button.
 
I've only been a pilot since he was 5, but I've got a lot of right seat photos of the panel and right main gear....

His first airplane ride was making noseprints on the windows of an A321 over the Rockies in winter at 7 months, and he's been interested in airplanes ever since.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
My wife's been sitting in back with the baby (I can't nurse him) and I know it's not particularly fun for her. I've heard this as the reason for many people upgrading to a cabin class - makes the spouse happier.
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Get the air con installed and it will be more tolerable :D

And it's not as bad as that, just takes a bit to get used to going from pilot to passenger.

HOWEVER:

If you would find us a GIV I could probably get used to that idea a whole lot faster.
 
Here's our guy at 7 months with the infant headset.
 

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Laurie said:
Get the air con installed and it will be more tolerable :D

And it's not as bad as that, just takes a bit to get used to going from pilot to passenger.

HOWEVER:

If you would find us a GIV I could probably get used to that idea a whole lot faster.
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Wayne, we're upping the ante. Know anybody with a G-IV who needs a really nice tax deduction? We could probably settle on a V but probably not on a II or III. Gotta keep the Mrs happy.

In the mean time, I'm working on the AC as fast as I can. :)
 
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