I have a 10 month old.

If I were to take her flying, Id need some ear protection. What would one use? Ear muffs, Plugs, Headset?

Lemme Know.

We used cotton balls, Peltor youth ear muffs, and silicone plugs called "Ear Planes". In the end it's whatever they will tolerate. Are you on the J-3 end of the spectrum, or the T-6 end?

Here's a thread you should read:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2785

Zzz wrote:Here's a thread you should read:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2785

Thanks for the link to the good thread. I think Ill try shaved ear plugs and a hat for now. Seems like a fine deal.

She rolls with a GoPro attached to her head so I dont think a set of earmuffs would do any damage either.

I used shaved earplugs and a hat that velcroed under the chin. Worked pretty good. Then I went to earplugs and ear muffs like what you buy at Home Depot. Those worked good so I was going to buy some peltor kids muffs but my neighbor gave me a kids headset and my little girl loves wearing them. Only trouble is she likes to talk so I have to unplug the mic when I'm at a towered field.

Only trouble is she likes to talk so I have to unplug the mic when I'm at a towered field.

Gawrsh! A normal kid!

Seriously, pax who talk when they shouldn't (in spite of being briefed on the "sterile cockpit" concept) has always been a problem. The only real cure is in the form of an audio panel which has a "pilot isolate" switch for the intercom. When I had a new PS Engineering 6000B installed last year, I found myself using its "pilot isolate" switch a lot., especially with kids in the back seat. It's really neat that by switching it to "crew", the kids can still talk with each other, and the front-seaters can talk to each other, too; on "pilot isolate", the 3 pax can talk to each other without interfering with pilot communications.

Incidentally, when my kids were little (roughly ages 7 through 14 for the older, 4 through 11 for the younger), we flew all over the US in a 182, without headsets and without intercoms--ATC was heard over the cabin speaker, and yelling was the name of the game for inter-cabin communication. After a couple of years of doing that, we all started using foam earplugs. While ol' Dad has a mild hearing loss and wears hearing aids daily, neither of the boys, now ages 47 and 43, has any hearing loss, at all. Perhaps it's that they were mostly in the back seat, where the sound isn't as intense. My point is that it's unlikely that little kids would suffer any hearing loss for the occasional times they ride along. The biggest reason for them to have headsets in today's airplanes is so that they can participate in the conversations.

Cary

Unplugging the kid's mike os a good idea. I've given a ride to more than one kid who got a big kick out of heavy-breathing into the mike. That gets old quick.

Here is an excerpt on an article I've written about flying with families for the new site on this subject. Hope it helps!



#3 - Protect their hearing. When we were expecting our first child, we were disappointed to find that there was, and continues to be, a real lack of options for infants to toddlers. A search of ideas on how to protect my little guy's ears eventually led me to some instructions on how to make your own. Follow this link to the article I found at AOPA. http://www.aopa.org/members/files/topics/family_article5.html While I can't attest to the level of noise reduction they offer, we do believe that they are fairly effective. What we do know is that the design has worked well for all three of our kids. Its bonnet style prevents little ones from pulling them off 5 seconds into your taxi. They are easy to make and you'll only be out a few dollars.

As the kids get towards the toddler age, but aren't quite to the talking point, we've found that children's ear muffs from Lowes or Home Depot work great if you can get your child to keep them on. When they get to the point you need or want to communicate, we found that SoftCom makes children headsets that are very affordable and of good quality. They come in red, blue, purple and pink. You can find them online from various outlets for around $100, but make sure to get the one with the built in jack on the ear cup! This handy feature lets your child pipe in the audio from their DVD player, Nintendo DS, iPad, iPod, etc. right into their headset. A definite must. Those with that option come with the cord for attaching your device. If you don't want that, the same headset minus that feature can be found for around $80. By the time you get them all on aviation headsets, if you don't have one already on your com panel, you might want to consider getting one with an isolate switch. Seems kids are somewhat enthralled at being able to hear themselves and will talk or make obnoxious noises right when you need to be hearing something!

That's just about as cute a kids-in-the-plane photo as I've ever seen!

One other caution, don't fly them if they have head congestion, ears, sinus etc. Besides excruciating pain, altitude changes can cause permanent damage.

bumper

Thanks bumper. JC wore them out! This was on our way home last summer.