Cat-tastic! How to Fly with Feline Friends?

[Bravoman]

 My cat is a great flyer. I do have an unusual cat though. He really acts more like a dog in most respects. He will curl up on the seat or in my wife’s lap and go to sleep for the duration of the flight. He’s as good as it gets. 

[Austintatious]

If you are concerned about the cats hearing, then build a box for it!

Get some foam board at the hardware store and some glue and metal backed tape.  Make a box and put in lots of small air holes with a hot poker on the two ends.  Make small 1/4 inch holes, that will keep the large sound waves out.  It will also be dark which will encourage sleeping.   You could make this a few weeks before the trip and put the kittys bedding in there to get it used to the box.

The disadvantage is that you wont be able to see the cat in flight.  You could make the top of the box the lid so that the kids could open it up and look down into the box on occasion.  If you don't want the cat to be able to jump out, put 2 doors... one for putting kitty in and one for viewing with chicken wire as a guard.  

The sound might not only hurt the cats ears, but will no doubt contribute to anxiety.

If you have an O2 system, you could put an o2 hose into the box and that would allow even less holes.

Edit: for construction ideas, google "generator sound proofing box"

[midlifeflyer]

I can't believe no one has linked this yet...

 

[Stephen]

On 3/20/2020 at 8:50 PM, Amelia said:

Have flown cats several times. First one moved with me and the Mooney, in her crate in the back seat. She yowled piteously for three solid hours, except when she was vomiting. Poor baby, but driving that far would have been worse, without the benefit of dear David Clark. Second one was annoyed for a little while, then just glowered for the rest of her relocation. Third one was a fine large marmalade rescue boy who   would have spent his ride curled up purring in my lap if I’d let him. Fourth desperately wanted out of his crate, I think mostly out of curiosity. He loves being on our boat with us, wants to be able to see out, to rule the waves. So, it depends on the cat. Some cats are good travelers, some aren’t. 

I have a hard rule: In my Mooney, all cats are crated. Period. Short final is no time to deal with psycho cat, all fangs and claws. I don’t feed them the night before a trip,  or have water in the crate. Paper medical bed pad makes a decent disposable crate liner. I kind of wondered how a kitty stoned on catnip would behave, but not inclined to experiment.

Good luck!

 

Can we just pour our kitty a big bowl of this Nice Kitty elixer and when they have drank all they can take, put them in a crate with a big, thick, disposable towel...and go fly:

[Guest]

There is also a video of a cat that did a circuit in the wing of an LSA.

Clarence

[EricJ]

52 minutes ago, M20Doc said:

There is also a video of a cat that did a circuit in the wing of an LSA.

Clarence

Inadequate preflight inspection. 
 

 

[MooneyMitch]

That’s one tough kitty!

[Guest]

2 hours ago, EricJ said:

Inadequate preflight inspection. 
 

 

Wing spars are fine, I just had a “Cat Scan” completed.

Clarence

[irishpilot]

Our cat did great! She cried a little at first, them was chill. Three hop in one day.

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[Yetti]

I keep thinking this thread is about doing a cat launch in a Mooney

[irishpilot]

I keep thinking this thread is about doing a cat launch in a Mooney

now that would be awesome...right until the gear or wings sheared off!

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[EricJ]

1 hour ago, irishpilot said:

now that would be awesome...right until the gear or wings sheared off!

Gotta dial the steam pressure down a bit. 

[Yetti]

6 hours ago, irishpilot said:

now that would be awesome...right until the gear or wings sheared off!

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk
 

What's the movie where they would stand at the end of the cat piston run to test their nerves?

I was reading on the T-28s where they were ripping and having tails fall off because they did no quite design them to do cable recoveries.  ooops.