How old to fly?

[Jason]

How old was your son/daughter when you took them flying in a GA airplane for the first time? My little girl is 6 months old now and I'm thinking it's about time for her first airplane ride. The pediatrician says it ok but I'm not completley confident she understands the differences in light airplane and airline flying. What did you do for hearing protection?

Jason

 

[USMCmech]

I took my son with me when he was 6 months old. He just fell asleep. He just considered it a noisy car ride. I put his carrier foward facing in a C-152 and it worked fine (it wouldn't fit backwards).

I tried to slice some foam earplugs in half to make them fit ijn this ear, but he just pulled them out. I have heard that the wax earplugs designed for swimming work well, just do NOT insert/readjust them up at altitude (4,000 plus).

Now I have a child sized headset for him, but he just pulls it off his head and chews on the cord.

 

[MQAAord]

At 6 months baby is more than physically capable of dealing with flight. There really is nothing you can do about hearing protection, as there's probably not a 6-month old ever lived that would leave a headset of any kind on

Many car seats will not fit rear-facing in GA airplanes, go ahead and let her sit forward facing, AS LONG as the car seat is a convertable carseat that is MEANT to face forwards as well as backwards! Under no circumstances use an infant car seat forward facing that is ONLY designed to be rear facing.