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Fujiflyer
19th May 2002, 19:22
From Mrs Fujiflyer...
We recently took our 23 month old on a short flight, we had a few problems which are as folllows:
First battle- we put cotton wool in her ears (reduce sound level) however she insisted on pulling this out, it ended up with a tantrum and no cotton wool.
Second battle-we tried her with the lap belt , unfortunately she thought this was a game and unfastened it numerous times. Obviously we cannot tywrap this because of the need to be able to release it quickly (if things were to go seriously Pete Tong).
In two weeks we're off to Menorca and I'm concerned about the long flight.
Has anybody else got any helpful advice? :confused:
Fujiflyer :) :) :)
'Tis very difficult. The only cure for Fujijunior's "let's undo the seat belt" game is to distract with something else (game, book, whatever turns him/her on).
Or get the hostie to give you one of those extension belts that attaches sprog to you - and tiewrap that! You don't mind sprog being firmly attached to you if it comes to a hasty exit.
Go well-supplied with Junior's favourite sweeties (or whatever). Otherwise, two hours of tantrums will make you extremely popular with the other passengers.
I speak as a Dad and Grandad with much experience of under-fives in aircraft, spread over a long time. The little "thread the wooden peg with the string on it through all the holes" (Copyright Lufthansa 1970-ish) seems to be a wonderful device.
AerBabe
19th May 2002, 20:10
Keef... I'm not sure whether Fuji means he is flying them to Menorca?! :confused:
Fujiflyer
19th May 2002, 20:21
Thanks Aerbabe (:) )
Yeah, I am flying the 'plane down to LEMH alone. :)
No Hosties in G-BCKT (sadly ) but I take on your points.
Fujiflyer:) :) :)
Ivchenko
19th May 2002, 21:35
Won't be a problem after a short while - in my experience, and that of my mates, kids find small aircraft very soporific.
I think you can get baby ear defenders from Transair - she'll probably play with taking them off and on a few times and decide she prefers them on.
Hope the trip goes well:)
AerBabe
19th May 2002, 21:36
Sounds like fun! Tell you what, take me as co-pilot/child minder. I don't do skirts, and I don't really do children.... but hey, it's flying! :)
Fuji, you is one brave fella, flying that far with a tiny. If you're lucky, yours will be like others we know that doze off after a few minutes. If you're unlucky...
My youngest granddaughter goes to sleep the moment an engine starts (car, aeroplane, anything). But her big sister, now...
:-(
Genghis the Engineer
19th May 2002, 22:23
I've not tried this myself, but Mrs Genghis, who has taken two small children long-haul on several occasions, advises getting a volunteer adult to stay up all the night before playing with them. By the morning they'll be absolutely tired out and sleep all the way.
G
Legalapproach
19th May 2002, 22:32
When our children were that sort of age we used to sit them in their car seats. They were quite used to this and unable to undo the belts. There should be no problem in attaching the car seat to the aircraft using the lap strap. As to keeping them amused just use the same supply of books/toys they would have in the car.
At the time I had a share in a Robin 100-210 and with two children I would have one in the co-pilots seat alongside me and Mrs approach would sit in the back with no.2 child. However, you should put the co's seat as far back as it will go as one of the Missapproaches at 18 months found it very amusing to start kicking at/pushing on this interesting moving yoke thing in front of her. our children were quite happy to fly on legs of up to around 2.5 hours.
formationfoto
20th May 2002, 19:39
The car seat plan works for me. Daughter had many years of her early life being flown around in the Jodel like this. On longer trips in the back of the 310 I have looked around to see her smiling face enjoying the flight only to see her asleep. Son went flying at two weeks old in the Jodel - hope to keep his interest and convince him to combine being a well paid surgeon and solicitor and a world aerobatic champion so that he can pay me back by acquiring all the aircraft I have been unable to get my hands on.
I concur with above suggestions having flown with children at ages from 12 months to 4 years of age in B777s, BAe146s and other large commercial aircraft as well as in the back of Cessna 172s and Robin Dr400s etc.
Use the car seats that are designed to secure via either a lap-strap or lap and shoulder strap. These can be firmly attached to either a light aircraft or a commercial passenger aircraft seat. Once the little critter is secured within the car seat they should not be able to undo either the aircraft seat straps, as they are out of reach, or the car-seat straps which are designed to be difficult for infants to operate.
Hearing protection is essential in light aircraft - get the smaller sized onces supplied by Transair if you can as these will fit a child's head better and give better attenuation or use the existing aeroplane headsets. When flying in the C172 my 2 1/2 year old boy sat in the back seat with a full-size headset on, although it was not ideal as it did not grip his head as well as it would on an adult. During the outward journey he was mesmerised listening to the RT and looking out of the window. On the return leg he fell fast asleep and only awoke when the engine was shutdown and it all went quiet!
matspart3
24th May 2002, 15:23
My six year old daughter has been flying with me in a PA28 since she was 18 months old. I still use her car booster seat and she now sits up front with me. A word of warning. There was one occaision when just as I flared to land, she leant forward and grabbed the yoke as it approached the fully rearward extent of travel to "help Daddy land the plane". I'd taken the precaution of moving her seat back but she still had just enough reach to grab on! The resultant balloon was probably no worse than some of my other landings but a bit of a shock at the time!
LowNSlow
25th May 2002, 04:35
My 4-year old daughter sits on her car booster seat in the front with me (no seats in the back:D). She wears an adult headset set which is not ideal but serves the purpose until I get her a child size set.
The only time she seems uncomfortable is when I swing the prop (she is strapped in and unable to reach the throttle). The longest we've been up is about 45 minutes and she seemed fine and she is always miffed when we land. The Auster has a noisy cockpit (no muffler) and I don't want to batter her tender lugs for too long until I get her a decent headset.
She does seem to find straight and level boring. She loves doing Battle of Britain style breaks. Another favourite is circuits, even when I'm doing Tigger impersonations down the runway. :D
Good luck with the marathon Fuji, take plenty of drawing material, crayons and emergency drinks/relief bottles and things will be cool. :cool:
Bouncy Landing
26th May 2002, 21:50
Well my first-born is 1 in August. He's not flown with me yet (but was very intersted in the inflight moving map on an A320 at 4 months - youngsters rely on GPS far too much these days!) but guess what hes having fro his frist birthday... yep child ear defenders from Transair - took him to show him the other day while Mrs Bouncy was at work....
Flyin'Dutch'
26th May 2002, 23:13
Hi Fujiflyer
Nipper is now 18 months and have found that when travelling in the Robin that the best way is to put the childseat in the aircraft and secure nipper to this.
Tried just the seat belt and resulted in same game. Seems that when we use the car seat she resigns herself that she will be in there for the duration much like sitting in the car.
Tried headphones but she could not work out where these voices came from without seeing anyone talking to her.
HTH