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Child Seats in Aircraft

My daughter is 4 years old, and I’d like to bring her flying in the summer.

But obviously at 4, she still needs a child seat.

However the rear seat belts in the Arrow II that I fly only has lap belts. Obviously not many cars have lap belts now, so child seats aren’t designed to use them.

Try as I might, I’ve not been able to find a child seat that works with a lap belt.

I’m not sure that putting a child seat in the front of a PA28 is a good idea on a number of grounds.

I thought that possibly an airline approved one might work (as they only have lap belts in airlines!) but it’s likely too small as they are only used up to the age of 2. However even finding these is not easy!

So how do others manage? Is there some specialist brand for GA that works with lap belts?

EIWT Weston, Ireland

We used a mother care child seat which attached using the lap belt. Now at nearly four she uses the adult rear seat with the lap belt, no problems.

EGCJ, United Kingdom

All of them work with lap belt only. In cars, they guide the shoulder belt to a pass through to avoid strangulation.
Still, not ideal with lap belt only.

I’d use one of these with integrated shoulder belts.

Use the lap belt to secure it (and possibly some additional straps).

While not very common around here, we’ve used only re-boarder seats in our cars (standard in Scandinavia).
Might work with rear seat lap belts as well.

Last Edited by Snoopy at 09 Feb 21:54
always learning
LO__, Austria

Keep looking, you will be able to find non-isofix car seats somewhere. Over here, we often see then in supermarkets in the baby aisle. Older cars don’t have isofix so these child and baby seats will continue to be sold for a while yet.

Our four year old turns five next month and I think we will just use a booster seat this year, as she’s getting a bit tall to squeeze in to a child seat.

EGBJ and Firs Farm, United Kingdom

I swapped from “MaxiCozy NewBorn” to “Britax Romer” with age
- For some reason MaxiCozy only worked in DA40 & DA42 and they get crampy with age
- Britax works on lap only belt but fit very tight in any car & aircraft backseat (ok all ages)

You may need additional straps (some light one are rated 2000lbs) depending if you have a place to attach them

The drawback with Britax is you will need to pick a good destination: walking distance for one day trip (car seat stay in the aircraft) or taxi for overnight stay trip (car seat stays in hotel), to carry a Britax with you on one day trip after taking a taxi is a lot of hassle: don’t even think about how to deal with two of these car seats, it’s a nightmare

Last Edited by Ibra at 10 Feb 09:30
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

I don’t really get the point. Why not use one of the cheap and readily available plastic “bricks” on which they just sit some 20 centimeters higher? The typical two-point-belt from older aircraft perfectly runs through these “side arms” to fixate the kid on the seat. I mean this (picture from amazon):

For our 4 years old boy we use one that is very lightweight, has straps to fix it nicely to the seat (won’t work with a rear bench) and even has a storage room below. I forgot the brand of ours, but it’s like this one (other product from amazon):

For the baby we just use an additional belt like you get it in an airliner, and it sits warm and protected with my wife. Later we will also use such a “brick”.

I would not use a big car seat which is made to be connected with the car (isofix) or made to be restrained by shoulder belt, I think it would even be less safe in case of an accident than the simple brick. Could even be a threat on itself for front passengers, because it can move so freely, as the seat cushions are a lot softer than in a car. And other than that it is just a hassle to get such a big car seat into place, it’s heavy and it tends to move in flight, it’s just very difficult to position it such that it keeps in place. If you really think you need a seat with a backrest then watch out that the seat is fixated by the lap belt, but the kid is not secured with that belt, but that the seat has its own belts like the example @Snoopy posted. As I said, I wouldn’t use it.

dublinpilot wrote:

I’m not sure that putting a child seat in the front of a PA28 is a good idea on a number of grounds.

Why? Try it out, how far you can rail back the copilot seat. I only once had some small “father-son-discussion” in my cockpit, where my then-2 y/o found it funny to step on the stick during landing flare, which I naturally wanted to bring back the stick further and further in that phase of flight. Was a surprise in the beginning (blocked stick?) but not any real issue.

Last Edited by UdoR at 10 Feb 10:35
Germany

UdoR wrote:

I would not use a big car seat which is made to be connected with the car (isofix) or made to be restrained by shoulder belt, I think it would even be less safe in case of an accident than the simple brick. Could even be a threat on itself for front passengers. And other than that it is just a hassle to get such a big car seat into place, it’s heavy and it tends to move in flight, it’s just very difficult to position it such that it keeps in place.

You may have to explain all of that to my wife, also don’t drivers insist you have “proper” car seats when asking for taxi & uber after landing?

PS: Things have changed, when I was 5 years old, my mum would open the front door of Peugot390 in a hurry and say “get in the f&&& car”

Last Edited by Ibra at 10 Feb 10:45
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Ibra wrote:

You may have to explain all of that to my wife

If it was really not clear from context: I mean in an accident in the plane. Obviously not in a car crash. That’s a very different set of energies involved.

Ibra wrote:

also don’t drivers insist you have “proper” car seats when asking for taxi & uber after landing?

That was not asked by @dublinpilot. However, for that we have the Urban Kanga foldable child seat and take it along whenever a ride is needed after landing. In that case we also use it in-flight and leave the other one at home. It weighs close to nothing, in comparison, but does give us an o.k. impression for what it’s used for. It comes with a bag to carry it along. Even used this bag as suitcase in airliner flights. So @Ibra actually with one, but even with two of these we do not fear holiday travel

(no one can seriously contest that an isofixed seat with big “ears” on each side will give a better protection for the child in a car crash, but the Urban Kanga seems to give a reasonable overall compromise. It’s also a lot more handy in the airplane than a big one, and the seat has a separate belt. But with this seat we put the kid in the middle of the back row in the car, where typically there is no isofix connection, and sit ourselfes at the outer side places. Kids love that! And in the middle you don’t need the side protection in the same extent. So that’s the reasoning because we think it’s o.k. with this seat)

Last Edited by UdoR at 10 Feb 13:57
Germany

For our 4 and 6 year old, we use two Maxicosi Rodifix (isofix), which I hook with straps that get both seats tightly against the rear passenger bench of the DR400. The straps go between the child seat’s rear plastic support and the cushion. Then I use the lap and shoulder belts in the plane exactly as in a car.
Once the engine is running, both kids fall asleep faster that the time I needed to install the seats

Enjoy the family flight!

BOD
LSGY, LFSP, LFHM, Switzerland

Urban Kanga foldable child seat looks neat for mobility !

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom
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