First a bit of a joke:
Fact 1. I demonstrated repeatably the ability to land a Twin Comanche so smoothly that I didn’t wake the baby. (The twincom has a reputation for being OK to land safely, tough to land smoothly)
Fact 2. Baby used for experiments was also able to roll out of bed, fall on the floor, and not wake up.
A more serious suggestion:
I found a normal DC headset worked well from a pretty young age – by putting a juggling bean bag under the headband. Although DC headsets have a reputation for high clamping forces, this is reduced simply because the child’s head is smaller.
The other thing to be very careful about is that babies and small children have much smaller tubes connecting ears/nose/throat and they find it harder to keep everything clear so it’s important to keep the RoD gentle.
Bobo wrote:
As for opinions from others, it struck me too that on a dutch aviation forum a few members frowned on the idea of taking young kids along.
Surprises me that you’d get that on an aviation forum. Haven’t had any comments on my plans from anyone used to flying themselves, nor from anyone living in remote areas (they reason that a properly planned flight will be safer than driving 1200km on crummy roads full of roos and roadtrains). It’s the non flyers that are worried about it. My answer to that is: if I thought flying was too dangerous to bring the baby, then why would I take the risk for myself or my wife or any of the friends that I’ve taken up?
Anyway… It’ll be a few years before I can take him up for a spin in the Decathlon, and don’t even wanna start thinking about the comments that will generate! 
Peter wrote:
The only issue I can think of even with older children, is high altitudes and oxygen. Kids often go to sleep. Many people, when they sleep, do so with their mouth open, and that defeats the cannula.
I won’t be using oxygen, from what I’ve seen it’s quite rare in Oz anyway. The only installations I’ve seen were in a demo model of the TTx that came fresh from the states and a newish twin Bonanza (whose owner was doing his Mustang type rating, so maybe he didn’t like the hassle with cannulas? 
). Could be because there’s no Alps or Rockies in the way, or perhaps because CASA makes it really expensive and/or difficult. In SE Qld and Northern NSW A085 will usually get you above the inversion layer, and well above any hard bits in the blackall range.
Maritime_Ev wrote:
Anyway… It’ll be a few years before I can take him up for a spin in the Decathlon, and don’t even wanna start thinking about the comments that will generate!
Actually, a video went around not so long ago with a guy doing some aerobatics with his 4 y.o. daughter LOL all along.
The aircraft did look like and American Champion
For the rest I’ve flown my kid a few times since around 12 months old, on mummy’s laps, with a Peltor Kid headset and they tend to sleep anyway…
The most recent trip (actually probably my best ever flying weekend in reference to another thread) was for a wedding to Bordeaux from Luxembourg last September.
She slept the full 4h of the return trip in her car seat, only waking up when I restarted the aircraft after refuelling in Luxembourg !
I’m starting to think O2 as when I get my IR ticket I will probably rent a PA28-201T and it will make sense to consider it.
As such I welcome Peter’s remarks above ! They might even apply to my other half as well
PapaPapa wrote:
Actually, a video went around not so long ago with a guy doing some aerobatics with his 4 y.o. daughter LOL all along.
Wasn’t it a T6 (Harvard)? Good video.
I believe it’s this one:
They are both nice videos but the laughing in the first one certainly made me smile
it was the first one actually
I will now buy the same headset for my daughter, now that she speaks correctly
My Graddaughters are 6 and 10. They have both flown with me in the C182 from a few months old. We have a set of Peltor Kids Headset for them until about 3 then the standard (Bose X in my case) headsets are fine. We always had Mum or Grandma sat next to them when they were small, usually with a pocket full of raisins and sweets. It helps with the pressure changes. We also used Child’s Car Seats. Our insurers said this was a grey area in an aircraft (N reg) but saw nothing wrong with using a car seat.
When they were less than 3 I always flew as low as possible looking after their ears with gentle descents etc. however, I live on an island so the sea crossing was always done higher but climb and descent is always slow.
I was flying with them yesterday. what astonishes me is just how quick they pick up everything. Firstly is a geography lesson for them. Then they correlate what they see outside with the “television screen” in front of me. The 10 year old said to me yesterday, " you better call Scottish Information, she wanted to know when we coast in and we are coasting in"!!!!!!
They become brutal critics of landing performance as well. I love flying with them and they love flying.
As a family we all discussed the safety of doing what we do and have concluded that so long as the aircraft is maintained to the highest possible standard, we wear life jackets, have suitable life raft and fly in reasonable weather then other than not flying with them at all we try to minimise the risks.
