Flying a cat in single engine piston

[Orville16]

Any heads up on carrying a cat aboard a single engine greatly appreciated. How is the cat handling the noise level inside the aircraft, and tips to mitigate the issues.

thanks in advance.

[Pilot DAR]

I brought my first cat home this way, 45 minutes in the C150. The cat was not happy about it, but seemed to have no lasting concerns.

I also delivered a kitten to my middle daughter in university, 2 hours in the 182. The kitten seemed to enjoy the flight. Sadly, it did not enjoy Ottawa.

Make sure you have the cat restrained in cage or by leash, as appropriate. Good idea in the plane, vital outside at the airport!

[Saab Dastard]

Just borrow a Puss Moth...

[BEagle]

Iris the Bengal seems happy enough:

You Tube

[Orville16]

It happens to be a Bengal … thanks for the video

[MechEngr]

You Tube

[megan]

Just don't take it skydiving, none too happy by the looks when it gets to the door.

You Tube

[hobbit1983]

Originally Posted by megan

Just don't take it skydiving, none too happy by the looks when it gets to the door.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCshRw1DAks

Crikey. That one is bordering on animal cruelty.

[Repos]

Not air but

When bringing our cat over on a long car journey the advice our vet gave was
- best not to sedate them especially if older as the blood pressure can drop too low
- no food as a cat can go 24 hours without food easily
- access to water
We found she was most calm when confined to her cat carrier and covered with a blanket to dull any stimulation of light and noise. (gap for air of course)

[Jhieminga]

I have never taken a cat flying, but my common sense would probably suggest attempting a longish road journey first. See how the cat reacts to being in a car and go from there. I know that you can get ear muffs for dogs. Some sort of hearing protection is wise in a small plane but I suspect that putting it on the cat would be in the same league as feeding it a pill... best not attempted without full body armour.

[hobbit1983]

I've flown cats commercially (with their owners!) on a small bizjet. They were in carriers and seemed ok, although i suspect from the mewing they didn't enjoy the pressure changes all that much :/

[Miken100]

What the cat thinks...

Taking the various facial expressions I deduct that the cat thinks that the approach was a bit shallow and a somewhat 'firm' landing 🙄

[Orville16]

@-jhieminga :
as the main concern seems to be the noise-stress related ( from what the vet told me …), can you develop the ear muffing devices for dogs? Is there a similar item for cats ?
thanks in advance.

Orville

[RatherBeFlying]

My cat does not enjoy being in a carrier in the car perhaps because he can't see outside to correlate accelerations, but is quite happy in my son's lap.

See first how the cat gets along in the car.

[effortless]

It took weeks to get rid of the cat pee smell from my car upholstery.

[megan]

When taking our cat on a seventeen hour non stop car trip the vet advised and gave us a tranquilizer, cat slept happily in the rear seat footwell.