"Paul Folbrecht" wrote in message
news:aNFRb.1163 I'm especially concerned about the younger one for the
obvious reason
that 3 is pretty young. To the folks that have a lot of experience
taking up little kids- what are the rough odds that he'll be just fine
vs. having a cow? I need to decide if I should suggest that this isn't
a great idea or not. TIA.

Paul,

I think you'll be fine. I just recently took my 5 year old son and wife up.
It was the first GA flight for my son and the first in a while for my wife.
My wife was much more nervous than my son, who sat in her lap in the front
seat. I had to get stern with my son about touching any controls. He was in
one of his funky moods where he likes to test his parents, but after I spoke
with him, he understood that touching anything was not allowed. He would
never be so bold with a stranger piloting the aircraft. And by stranger I
mean someone other than his parents (this would include extended family).
Now, one caveat, my son is particularly well behaved. There are some kids
that I would never take up simply because I would not be able to trust that
they would even stay in their seats with their belts buckled.

As far as ear protection, I didn't provide any for my son, and my wife wore
a headset. I didn't have muffs and I knew that ear plugs weren't going to
work and besides it was a short flight. She would extend the boom to his
mouth and I could hear him speak, it was just that answering him was a pain
since I had to yell at him. My son has never liked loud, noisy things and he
seemed fine for the whole half hour that we were up. I need to at least get
that boy some muffs for the next flight, if not a kid's headset.

I chose a perfectly calm day and kept my banks, ascents and descents to a
minimum, more for my wife than my son. I flew over our house, his preschool
and Wal-Mart, things that he would recognize. And as I had expected, they
both got very sleepy about 20 minutes into it and nearly fell asleep. I
ended the flight with one of my best and slowest landings ever. My wife was
somewhat impressed with the flight, my son not so much. He liked it, but it
was not a big deal to him. He was more interested in dinner after the
flight. Oh well, maybe when he gets older, he'll "get it".

My advice would be to make sure that the kids are able to follow directions
and behave themselves. After that, you'll be fine. My personal minimum age
limit is around 5 years old, or perhaps younger if the kid is mature and
well behaved.

-Trent
PP-ASEL