Anyone have experience/advice on taking babies along on trips ie. dont go there, min. recommended age, ear protection, do they hate it or love it etc.
Cheers.

fine, just don't let them talk to ATC

Most babies’ I have flown (accompanied by parents) generally are asleep early in the flight. I don’t really like taking the little ones (under 3 years) above 8000’ feet I have had some vocal kids after coming down from 10 000’ feet. A pacifier or a drink may help with equalizing the pressures

flew my daughter aged 1 in her car seat strapped into the back of the aircraft with the ear defenders on so we could talk to her if she needed reassuring. Fell asleep as I taxied out and woke up 1:15 later just as we were on short finals!! Much easier than the car and no... dad dad are we there yet????

I've flown my son regularly since he was 10 months old, strapping him in using his car seat. Just like a road trip, the white noise and vibration helps coax him to sleep. To protect his hearing I bought him a Soft Comm headset built for kids with in-built ANR. At the time it was less than $US200.

My most valuable suggestion is not to sit the kids in the seat directly behind the pilot, if possible. He woke up once when I was on short final in a FW plank and he decided to kick my seat with both feet until he gained Dad's attention. His kicking continued as I was trying to land in a howling crosswind

Now he is almost 4 he loves every trip I take him on. I even give him a sectional chart so he can 'help' navigate. I couldn't recommend enough the experience of taking your little ones flying, whether that be RW or FW. It will give them memories to last a life time.

If fly a low altitudes (2000ft or so, normal helicopter alts) then no problem as long as there is no ENS problems and they have ear protection (plus an adult to look after them who is not also the captain..)

Apart from that, its just 'personal transport' innit??


(and get them a logbook so they can start logging AEF time from early on. Redeye-Junior has more left seat hours than most PPLs ever get)

h-r

You\'ve not been around much recently CC, is that a \'happy event\' ??

Yeah, little guy came along a few weeks ago and I will start to feel a bit guilty leaving him at home with the misses every other weekend. Figure I will take him on missions with me.
Good to start his training early. Will be nice to see him do his first solo on his 16th.

Chopperchav,

Many congratulations to you and Mrs Chopperchav!

I believe we may have met as fellow students on the Robinson Flight Safety Course last year. Hope you're enjoying the '44.

DBChopper

My main experience flying with my children is they now get bored, and do ask "when will we get there". Naturally I tell them to look out of the window and take in the fantastic view. This is sometimes interupted by "I desperately need the toilet" - then its 'field' time!

Jon

I flew both my sons frequently from newborn onwards. I always plugged ears with cotton wool as well as putting ear defenders on them, which can get pushed out of position whilst they sleep. We had the straps in the back adapted to take a standard baby’s car seat.

It is essential to have them in the back with a nominated adult to look after them, checking for screaming, vomiting, choking etc, all the usual delights of trying to keep your small baby alive, as well as checking the ear defenders remain in place. Having said that, I found both mine were asleep before skids up, until after skids down.

I was, however, keen to avoid any significant water crossing, as I could not see there was a possibility of the baby’s survival in the event of ditching. (Try getting a baby out of a car seat and then imagine doing it underwater etc). It went against all my maternal instincts to stack the odds against his survival, even though the probability of it happening was small.



Good Luck!