We purchased both of The Little Dudes car seats before the plane. He was just over a year and was still rear facing. We initially put him rear facing against our rear facing second row, until the Tillamook incident, then we moved him to the third row left side away from anything he can open.
We have a Diono Radian RXT and a Britax Pavilion. They both offer easy forward facing installation with a seatbelt in the plane. We can also utilize the tether with anchors on the floor. The Little Dude sits up higher in the Britax so it is easier to see outside the plane. The Diono works fine, but not the #1 choice in the plane. We like to keep the Little Dude in the carseat for safety; in case of a hard landing and so he isn’t free to roam. Mama and Papa pilot are normally in the front. Mama pilot does go to the back to hang out with the Little Dude after we are established in flight and returns to the front for landing.
2 Comments “Car Seats -> Plane Seats”
Thanks for the information! My spouse and I are expecting our first little aviator in the next week. Can you send me some information on how you buckled in the car seat into the plane?
Congratulations!!
In our Bonanza with the infant seat (ours was Chicco) we were not able to use the base in the plane. We would install the chair forward facing in the second row and then use the seatbelt to install the carseat so it was rear facing like the car. This does make it hard to get to the baby if both people are in the front seat. If you were worried about the baby being alone, someone could sit in the second row with them if the w&b works.
Once we transitioned to the convertible carseat we were able to change the configuration to crew and the carseat we installed the 1 year old was facing backwards (since the seat faced backwards), again this makes it hard to reach them, but it does help that we have older brother in the 3rd row to hand her things and let us know if she is awake, crying, ect. We use the cargo clips on the floor for the tether.
On our last few flights we put the second row forward facing and both car seats forward facing too. This is not my favorite to forward face our 17 month old, but logistics make getting things to her much easier if we are both flying up front and have lots of gear in the back to secure.
It really isn’t an exact science. Our Diono fits in the plane the best because it is narrow, you will have to figure out how tight you can get the seat with the seatbelt and find the right direction/ arm to make the seat to get it secure.