Nothing gets your attention like seeing your child struggle to breathe. My son (7 years old) and I were on a 2 hour 10 minute cross county recently in our RV-9A. About an hour into the flight, while cruising with the autopilot on at about 8000? AGL, he told me he was hungry. I remembered a protein bar I had packed. I pulled it out and instructed him to break off ?pea-sized? pieces and eat them. What could go wrong?
A couple minutes later, I looked over and saw a distressed face looking slightly downward towards his knees. I asked, ?Are you OK?? He looked at me, very frightened and wiggled his head. ?Can you breathe?!? He shook his head side-to-side.
I immediately unhooked his seatbelt and pulled him onto my lap. I gave a quick thrust to his abdomen and then heard him speak. It was the most relieving words ever, ?Dad, I don?t have my seatbelt on!?
We were both very thankful this event turned out the way it did.
Reflecting back, I?m constantly monitoring my position on ForeFlight, so I knew the nearest airport. But, here are a few other thoughts I took away from that flight:
1. NO EATING IN THE AIRPLANE. EVER. Not even a bite. If we?re hungry, we?ll land.
2. Know the quickest safe way to get your airplane on the ground, without compounding the problem.
3. Keep on a radio frequency that can best help you in an emergency. If it?s an option, consider keeping 121.5 dialed in on your #2 radio.
Blue skies!
A couple minutes later, I looked over and saw a distressed face looking slightly downward towards his knees. I asked, ?Are you OK?? He looked at me, very frightened and wiggled his head. ?Can you breathe?!? He shook his head side-to-side.
I immediately unhooked his seatbelt and pulled him onto my lap. I gave a quick thrust to his abdomen and then heard him speak. It was the most relieving words ever, ?Dad, I don?t have my seatbelt on!?
We were both very thankful this event turned out the way it did.
Reflecting back, I?m constantly monitoring my position on ForeFlight, so I knew the nearest airport. But, here are a few other thoughts I took away from that flight:
1. NO EATING IN THE AIRPLANE. EVER. Not even a bite. If we?re hungry, we?ll land.
2. Know the quickest safe way to get your airplane on the ground, without compounding the problem.
3. Keep on a radio frequency that can best help you in an emergency. If it?s an option, consider keeping 121.5 dialed in on your #2 radio.
Blue skies!