Carseats on personal planes

My FIL has his own plane. Its a Cesna 4 seater plane. My husbands family flies and has been flying for years. His dad has been a pilot since before I was born!

I trust him and all, but I am not comfortable with my kids going in the plane. Maybe if we were going somewhere but "just for fun" doesn't seem like its worth it. (I am terrified of planes and thats where this comes from) I'd just hate for my kids to be afraid of planes because I am. So am I nuts for not letting them go??

DH thinks I am nuts. However once I explained that the babys carseat would have to be RFing so it obviously wouldnt work, and it was too much hassle to install the older ones he agreed.

My SIL though is planning on taking her two oldest. They are both in Evenflo Generation's harnessed FFing.

She told me to investigate seats and private planes. My question is...can you even install seats in these things?? If I remember correctly the front seats had 5 pt harnesses and the back just had cheapy lap belts. I'm not sure if they locked or tightened somehow or what. The plane is from the 80's.

Any clue? The plane is in a hanger an hour away and my FIL wouldn't have a clue about installing seats in them.

What model/year Cessna is it? I can find out what type of seatbelts it has and help you out with that. Most lapbelts in the back seats of planes are like the ones on commercial airlines, so they are quite easy as long as you don't get them stuck in the beltpath of a FFing Britax convertible.

Personal planes are in general quite safe *when the pilot is experienced, cautious, and level-headed." Many private pilots are um, not that. LOL. So, my biggest concern with flying in a small personal plane would be who the pilot was and their experience/attitude. My husband is an aviation mechanic and works on small private planes and he has customers that he would ride with, and ones that he won't.

I would definately have any kids in car seats. There was story from Canada a while back about a toddler being the only survivor of a small plane crash because she was in the back in her Graco Cargo.
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=28144&highlight=cessna+car+seat
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=28144&highlight=cessna+car+seat

Personally, I'd let my kids fly (and DD has) in a safe small plane with a trusted pilot in a car seat, or for DD a HBB with the 4 point harness. (The type of plane that DH fixes have 4 pt harnesses all around and a whole-pane parachute- www.cirrusdesign.com You should really talk your FIL into getting a Cirrus ;-) Much safer.) The Radian also works FFing with the 4 point harnesses. Most car seats won't install well with the harness. I'll dig for my pics and add some later.

If you have just lap belts in the back, which would be normal, then you should be able to get a seat RFing or FFing in there as long as there is ample front to back space for a RFing seat. RFing will always be safer, but personally, I would probably not be as concerned about extended RFing in a plane *if* I couldn't get the seat to work RFing and the baby was well over the minimum limits. (Like my 25# 16 month old).

Hope that helps. If you have any more questions and I don't come back and answer them feel free to PM me. Sometimes I lose threads while I'm chasing after my little wild man!

ETA: As far of your fear od planes I can't halp you much. I am very cautious, but not so much fearful. My dad was actually killed in a small plane crash when I was 5, and it wasn't due to pilot error as most crashes are ruled after investigation. So, really, you'd think I'd be really scared and never want my kids or husband to ride in a small plane. But no, I married an airplane mechanic who will some day get a pilot's license. Go figure...

My dh is a pilot and we fly often. I can get 2 boulevards in back seat of a 172 or 182 (both Cessna 4 seaters). I feel it is very safe, but my DH is an overly cautious person, and trains on a continual basis. We also often fly a Seneca (piper 6 seater) and I can get 4 seats on it easily.

Piper's been on a few private planes and when I'm with her she flies in her Wizard. When Nathan took her with a friend and his son (our friend is the pilot) she rode in a high back booster. There was a shoulder and lap belt back there, but it was a booster rated from 40 pounds and Piper was 32. Needless to say, I was annoyed.

As long as the passenger seats face forward then you can install a seat on them.

Wendy

Thanks guys. It a Cesna 172 he said. A 1978. Older than I thought!

Eviesmama said:

Thanks guys. It a Cesna 172 he said. A 1978. Older than I thought!

Click to expand...

Honestly, the new ones don't look a lot different. Just, well, not as old.