I took my 2 year old daughter for an airplane ride in my Beech Musketeer (I know - but it has a back seat) over the weekend. She has been flying two or three times before, and has never really liked it. But she really wanted to go this time and kept asking to go flying - so I loaded her up. I thought maybe we were turning the corner and she was getting more interested in airplanes. My 5 year old son rides all the time and loves it.
I put her in the back seat with a booster seat so that the airplane's seatbelt would go around her and so that she could see out. She didn't want to wear the headset. Since we were operating out of a private strip and wouldn't need the radio, I just elected to leave my headset off, as well.
We took off, turned downwind, and she got a distressed look on her face. I reached back to put my hand on her leg to comfort her, but she got worse. She wiggled around in a panic and turned around backwards in the seat / seatbelt. She finally wiggled free of it and stood up. I trimmed for level flight and grabbed her out of the back seat. She latched on to my neck and would not sit down.
OK- how am I going to land with a freaked-out 2-year old in my lap? I decided that would not be a safe thing to do. I wrestled her into the copilot's seat and quickly strapped the seatbelt around her. In my best daddy voice (yelled over the engine noise) I calmed her down enough to make her sit there. I returned quickly for a landing. She was back in my lap for the taxi-in.
Lessons - I should have used a car-seat for her that she is used to and probably can't get out of. AND I should have taken my wife or another adult for kid duty until she has proven that she is OK with being in the airplane.
Be careful out there. Kids can be unpredictable and can cause real in-flight emergencies, not unlike , or any less dangerous than, engine or control system failure.
We'll try again, put next time with better planning!
I put her in the back seat with a booster seat so that the airplane's seatbelt would go around her and so that she could see out. She didn't want to wear the headset. Since we were operating out of a private strip and wouldn't need the radio, I just elected to leave my headset off, as well.
We took off, turned downwind, and she got a distressed look on her face. I reached back to put my hand on her leg to comfort her, but she got worse. She wiggled around in a panic and turned around backwards in the seat / seatbelt. She finally wiggled free of it and stood up. I trimmed for level flight and grabbed her out of the back seat. She latched on to my neck and would not sit down.
OK- how am I going to land with a freaked-out 2-year old in my lap? I decided that would not be a safe thing to do. I wrestled her into the copilot's seat and quickly strapped the seatbelt around her. In my best daddy voice (yelled over the engine noise) I calmed her down enough to make her sit there. I returned quickly for a landing. She was back in my lap for the taxi-in.
Lessons - I should have used a car-seat for her that she is used to and probably can't get out of. AND I should have taken my wife or another adult for kid duty until she has proven that she is OK with being in the airplane.
Be careful out there. Kids can be unpredictable and can cause real in-flight emergencies, not unlike , or any less dangerous than, engine or control system failure.
We'll try again, put next time with better planning!
