Kids and Car Seats

[Mike A]

At what age did you stop making your kids sit in a car seat in your Mooney?

[carusoam]

Followed what they were doing in the cars on the way to the airport...

Fortunately for my kids they were about three years apart...

So only one was in the giant volume using seat at a time...

The kids liked the seats because they were boosters, helping with being able to look out the window...

My tykes have moved on from this phase decades ago...  

Best regards,

-a-

[Seth]

My 5.5 and 3.5 year old are still in car seats. Just switched the 3.5 year old to forward facing.

-Seth 

[MB65E]

Whenever Mom will let them is my answer. Boosters work really well if they still need something. Boosters in the front seat works great too. 
My Girls are 10,8,& 4.
-Matt
 

[irishpilot]

I put car seats in the plane until I switched them to booster seats in the car. Really it comes down to can they see out the window and does the back seatbelt shoulder strap go across their chest vs neck. This is for rear-seat Mooney flying. For front, they'd need a booster to see. 

[Seth]

I also have a strap that we used on the airlines once.  I have never used it on the Mooney. It wraps around the seat horizontally and has two shoulder strap which loop to the bottom standard waist belt. I'll find a link. It's FAA approved for airlines. It may be worth it for larger kids. Since when we go somewhere we often take the car seats out of the Mooney (pre-covid) and put them in the rental car, it's never really been used for the Mooney. Booster's will likely be in the future.

Something kind of like this. Not sure this is the one we got but it may be. We got it in 2019 for a long flight. Borrowed one from a friend and got this one for us. We shipped the car seats in the luggage area (free feature). (The Mooney didn't have the legs to get to Hawaii).

If you think about it, a system like this may be an inexpensive way to get should restraints in the back seat for those that only have lap belts. Weight dependent of course.

https://www.amazon.com/Child-Airplane-Safety-Travel-Harness/dp/B089NR6B41/ref=asc_df_B089NR6B41/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459493959336&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2651312431284574446&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007781&hvtargid=pla-942506901046&psc=1

-Seth

 

[FJC]

The little one is going on 6 and for the foreseeable future will be sitting in a aircraft quality car seat. She faced forward far too early for us but it was a choice between a shrieking toddler for 45 minute commute (she hated facing backward), or somewhat of a blissful journey.

I like the strap linked above. I dont have a comparison of risk of injury in aircraft versus a car put believe the airplane to be much much lower risk. We dont spend "hours" a week flying but do so (or used to pre-covid) in our car so exposure is way higher in car.