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Flying with kids- how young is too young?



 
 
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  #21  
Old January 28th 04, 08:24 PM
G.R. Patterson III
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Paul Folbrecht wrote:

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've flown a couple of kids that young. One got a little queasy after about 30
minutes, so I recommend that you take them only when there's no turbulence and
keep the flight time to 15 or 20 minutes. They'll do fine. The hardest thing with
the young ones is getting them to wear a headset. I recommend that you pick up a
cheap set of hearing protectors at Home Depot. They're light and fairly small, so
it's easier to get the kids to wear them (you don't want them to have microphones
anyway!). Mine are made by Peltor and cost about $10.

George Patterson
Great discoveries are not announced with "Eureka!". What's usually said is
"Hummmmm... That's interesting...."
  #22  
Old January 28th 04, 08:38 PM
G.R. Patterson III
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Cockpit Colin wrote:

Most kids will take their lead from their parents - if Mum and Dad are
freaking out the kids assume there is something to be afraid of -


Or if Mom and Dad are working too hard to keep the kids from freaking out.

George Patterson
Great discoveries are not announced with "Eureka!". What's usually said is
"Hummmmm... That's interesting...."
  #23  
Old January 28th 04, 11:42 PM
Snowbird
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Paul Folbrecht wrote in message ink.net...
I have a friend who really wants me to take he & his two boys up- they
are 3 & 5. I am worried about them "freaking out"- especially the
little one. They have never flown before (commercially or otherwise).

Of course they need to be in back of the 172, which would make it
difficult for my friend to reassure them, etc.

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.


Well, it depends a lot on the attitude of the parents and
the individual kids.

We've taken up our fair share of that age group and had them
sit in back w/ the adults up front, but our daughter (who has
been flying in GA planes since age 12 weeks) is usually one
of the kids, and of course she's happy and calm. More or less.
Now that she's been allowed to sit up front and actually
manipulate the controls a few times (age 3 1/2), she keeps
lobbying for the right front seat .

However, friends with 2 young siblings have had nothing but
fights and squabbles if the two are left in back. The
good news is in a C172, you can reach the back seat pretty
well.

Depending on the child, 5 may be old enough to sit in the
front and exercise enough self control as to not touch
anything before asking. Or, another alternative is to take
up one at a time, with the father sitting in back with the
child. (watch the CG of course).

Cheers,
Sydney
  #24  
Old January 28th 04, 11:49 PM
Snowbird
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"C J Campbell" wrote in message ...
Kids usually love to fly. It is their parents that cause all the trouble. I
also would go with putting the 3 year old in back with a parent and the five
year old in front. Do not let the 5 year old have the yoke, no matter how
tempting it seems. A 5 year old will like as not nose the thing over saying,
"I'm gonna crash this thing!" They are old enough to know the plane could
crash, but too young to understand that this might be a bad thing.


FWIW, we let my daughter handle the yoke starting at age 3 1/2.
She was warned not to touch anything without explicit permission,
to stop touching immediately when told, and that if she had
any trouble remembering that or following instructions Daddy
would pull her into the back seat poco pronto. So far she's
been very good.

She doesn't nose the plane over, but she does have a hard time
flying level. We must present what a friend calls a "walrus"
track on the radar ("Wandering Aimlessly Lost over Rural US").

Of course, that's not to say there aren't 5 yr olds who
might behave as you say, and adults who would be incapable
of controlling them. I've met 5 yr olds I don't want w/in
100 ft of my plane.

Frankly, if I have doubts about the behavior of any of my prospective
front-seat pax I don't go. I have confidence in my ability to
undo or overpower a 5 yr old, but I've un-invited a couple of
large adult males when I got the sense that they thought they
knew more about flying than they did, and that they might not
be willing to accept me as pilot-in-command and the ultimate
arbiter of 'what goes' on the flight.

Cheers,
Sydney
  #25  
Old January 28th 04, 11:54 PM
Snowbird
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Cub Driver wrote in message . ..
Or leave the 3 yr old home. Are there any decent earphones for a 3 yr
old?


My 3 yo daughter wears Lightspeed 20Ks. They fit her quite
well on the smallest setting. She used to wear a normal pair
of adult headsets with extra foam taped on the headband to
"fill in" the gap, but now that we've let her try the Lightspeeds
she complains like heck if we try to put anything else on her.

There are several decent headsets made specifically for children.
Some of them have swappable bands so they can be worn as the
child grows, and some adult headsets have "child size" bands
available. They might be a bit big for a very small 3 yo, but
could be filled in with foam as described above.

Cheers,
Sydney
  #26  
Old January 29th 04, 03:09 AM
Cecil E. Chapman
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The first time my stepson flew with me he had just turned 5 years old.
Basically, we kept it simple and just flew a couple of circuits in the
pattern. I have some pictures of him on this flight at www.bayareapilot.com
and on some other flights he went with me.

He was a little nervous on the first take-off but then just settled in to
looking outside and talking about how the houses looked so small from 'up
here'. By the fourth or 5th circuit (he just kept asking for 'one more
time' and then he just fell asleep).

Important (I think) tip. Besides the practical aspect of providing a seat
cushion so they can see, it is also useful to helping prevent airsickness in
kids since they can see the horizon.

--
--
=-----
Good Flights!

Cecil
PP-ASEL

Check out my personal flying adventures complete with pictures and text at:
www.bayareapilot.com

"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

"We who fly, do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with
this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet"
- Cecil Day Lewis -
"Paul Folbrecht" wrote in message
nk.net...
I have a friend who really wants me to take he & his two boys up- they
are 3 & 5. I am worried about them "freaking out"- especially the
little one. They have never flown before (commercially or otherwise).

Of course they need to be in back of the 172, which would make it
difficult for my friend to reassure them, etc.

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.



  #27  
Old January 29th 04, 04:00 AM
Paul Folbrecht
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Thanks again to the group for all the insights. This really helped.

Child headsets- hadn't even thought of that! I just found out that my
FBO has none but apparantly had just ordered a couple. I really doubt
the 3 yo is going to keep anything like that on his head, though.

As for the seating arrangement, I had presumed that it would be a bad
idea to have one of the kids with a yoke in front of him but after
considering this advice I see that that was hasty. The 5 yo *should* be
old enough to be able to keep his hands off it if told.

I know the 3 yo has a problem with carsickness- yeah, he goes in back. :-)

  #28  
Old January 29th 04, 04:04 AM
Paul Folbrecht
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M,

I raced motocross for 12 years before hanging that up for something with
a much lesser chance of serious injury but greater chance of _really_
serious injury.

Washougal is a beautiful track- was never lucky enough to get out there
but have watched many of the MX Nationals filmed there.

(Your kid looks like a natural on the quad. For future reference,
though, posting pics to non-bin groups is considered bad form.)

I take my 7 year old up any time i go fly he has his own headset he likes
flying a lot. He especially likes the turbulence well bumps that make him
float off the seat in his words. But he is a quad racer and already crazy at
7 years old see photo attached at washougal mx park he was 6 years old
started him at 4.


  #29  
Old January 29th 04, 04:14 AM
Philip Sondericker
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in article , Cecil E.
Chapman at wrote on 1/28/04 6:09 PM:

The first time my stepson flew with me he had just turned 5 years old.
Basically, we kept it simple and just flew a couple of circuits in the
pattern. I have some pictures of him on this flight at
www.bayareapilot.com
and on some other flights he went with me.

He was a little nervous on the first take-off but then just settled in to
looking outside and talking about how the houses looked so small from 'up
here'. By the fourth or 5th circuit (he just kept asking for 'one more
time' and then he just fell asleep).

Important (I think) tip. Besides the practical aspect of providing a seat
cushion so they can see, it is also useful to helping prevent airsickness in
kids since they can see the horizon.


Speaking of airsickness, one thing you mentioned brings up an interesting
point: I can't recall how many times I've seen people post about kids
falling asleep during a plane ride. It makes me wonder if it isn't a child's
natural defense against motion sickness.

  #30  
Old January 29th 04, 04:18 AM
G.R. Patterson III
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Paul Folbrecht wrote:

I know the 3 yo has a problem with carsickness- yeah, he goes in back. :-)


Might want to reconsider. The motion of the plane is greater in the back seats.
I always put the person with the weakest stomach in front.

George Patterson
Great discoveries are not announced with "Eureka!". What's usually said is
"Hummmmm... That's interesting...."
 




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