https://amzn.to/2umCu5Y

Ran into this product randomly today. If you've ever had to travel by airline and pack your kids' car seats, you know it is a hassle. Then you arrive and maybe taxi or Uber? Install the car seats and pull em out again when you get to your destination. I use the Cosco seats for flying both commercially and GA because they are super light and cheap. Still bulky though to pack around and check.

It got me to thinking perhaps this could be a lightweight solution for GA planes. Anyone used it? Any opinions on the safety of it? The first thing that comes to mind is no side head protection.

My oldest is a tall 3.5 years old, so she could probably use it. My 1.5 year old is still out of the safe range though, and she still rides rear-facing.

Looks significantly safer than the free-range travel my siblings and I did in the cargo area of a station wagon or the bed of a pick-up truck when we were that age. And that was after dad turned a chemistry degree, 3,400 ephedrine tablets and 20,000 match heads into enough cash to buy a car. The pre-car moped days were almost dangerous...



Maybe add a bit of bubble-wrap for the side head protection?

Hammer wrote:Looks significantly safer than the free-range travel my siblings and I did in the cargo area of a station wagon or the bed of a pick-up truck when we were that age. And that was after dad turned a chemistry degree, 3,400 ephedrine tablets and 20,000 match heads into enough cash to buy a car. The pre-car moped days were almost dangerous...



Maybe add a bit of bubble-wrap for the side head protection?

Wow. That thing's got real bucket seats.

I've seen this one in person, same idea:

http://kidsflysafe.com/

We take car seats when we fly in our plane for several reasons. Most useful is that the kids sit higher in the seat so they can see out the windows and don't get sick as often. Most places we fly ourselves as a family we end up in a car at some point, and need real car seats. Lastly, I hope they are safer. We don't have mid or rear shoulder harnesses (6 seats) in our plane so I tether the car seats in the middle row down to cargo attach points and the car seat acts as the harness. Head and neck protection is provided by the seat rather than the half height rear seats with no headrest.

An added bonus is that you can take your sleeping kid out of the airplane in the seat without waking them up and put them in a car.

My oldest (7) can technically ride without a seat in a car, but we usually bring two Graco Nautilus seats. Easy to install, very comfortable, and will last 3-5 years of kid growth.

I like the idea but I'm not sure it would work with just the lap belt in the back of my 182. I watched the video and they said it is a "seat belt positioning device" and looks like they count on a shoulder harness. I was just working on the annual today and wondering how much of a headache its going to be to squeeze a 2nd car seat in there this year..... thought this may have been the solution.

That looks interesting Zane.

I’ve removed the front right seat to be able to travel with my eldest daughter who is turns 3 this summer. Between the car seat, stroller, and all the other stuff the kiddo needs, the 170B or 182D gets awfully packed awfully fast.

I have an extended baggage for the 170B that will be great for the light bulky stuff, but now we have a second daughter and I’m still trying to figure out how to pull it all off.

The car seats are big items which, if eliminated somehow, would be a big win.

I’ve used them in a car and airplane- I like them. Often times I coupled it with a booster seat to allow them to see outside. Heck of a lot easier to use when traveling commercially than a car seat.

I have the Kids Fly Safe harness for my airplane, which I've used for Angel Flights with little ones. It works with a strap around the seat back, so because my airplane's back seat is a bench (like many), I obtained a longer strap that goes around the entire seat back.

I've thought about getting a compact car seat for the tiniest passengers, but I haven't flown one, so it's an unnecessary expense. I did do some shopping around, and there are some relatively compact ones from Graco and Gerber that would fit more easily in an airplane than some of the elaborate ones I've seen.

I also bought a couple of Kids Fly Safe harnesses for my son when he and his wife took the kids to Disney World a few years back. At the time, the two older ones were still in car seats, the youngest one was still inside Mommy, and I thought it would be a lot more convenient for them than lugging car seats onto the airlines.

Cary