Friday, January 14, 2011 CARES Child Aviation Restraint System Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)We just bought the CARES restraint for our flight from Washington to Texas last month. We have the heaviest car seat ever made, I think, and I just wanted to check it, not struggle with it on the plane. The restraint did keep him in his seat, but I had two complaints.

First, I was disappointed that there was no strap between his legs to keep him from sliding down in his seat. I can see how one mother was concerned about strangulation, though I suspect if left to his own devices, my 2-year-old might have just finally managed to wriggle out of it altogether. In our case, I was frequently boosting him back up in his seat and had to keep a hand on him to keep him from wriggling back down during his fussiest moments. Now that I'm familiar with the problem, I may be able to rig a solution before we use it again.

My second concern was that the strap does go around the back of the child's seat, which means either you have to open the tray of the passenger behind you to install the strap, then close the tray back up, or in some cases (according to the instructions,) install the strap around the tray of the passenger behind you, rendering their tray useless and making it impossible to use the strap during the flight when that passenger would need their tray. Since I have this innate fear of annoying people, that would have really bothered me, but fortunately, since we are a family of five, we took up two rows anyway and I was able to make sure the baby was in front of one of us.

I would probably use it again for a four-hour flight like that one to avoid the hassle of maneuvering that car seat through the narrow aisles of a plane, but for longer flights I will probably stick with the car seat both for his sleeping comfort and my peace of mind.

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Product Description:
CARES Kids Fly Safe aviation restraint is designed specifically for aviation use for children age 1 and older who weigh between 22 and 44 pounds. These youngsters are old enough to be in their own seats, but are too small for the seat belt alone to protect them. Their bodies cannot withstand the jolts that are common in routine transportation, much less emergency situations, and they flail forward or slide beneath the seat belt if they are not held securely in place.Each year more and more young children fly. But until CARES Kids Fly Safe aviation restraint came along, what was missing was a convenient, hassle-free way to keep young flyers safe. Here's what makes CARES such an invaluable travel solution:CARES Kids Fly Safe aviation restraint is the first and only aviation Child Safety Device to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as an alternative to a car seat. CARES Kids Fly Safe aviation restraint is an elegantly designed belt-and-buckle device that works in conjunction with the regular airplane seat belt and provides young travelers the same level of safety as a car seat. CARES Kids Fly Safe aviation restraint weighs just one pound and fits into a 6" stuff sack! It is easily portable, simple to install, adjustable to nearly every size airplane seat, and usable on any seat in the airplane, except in the emergency exit rows. Need your car seat on the other end of the trip? Just check it through as luggage and carry CARES Kids Fly Safe aviation restraint on board in your pocket! CARES is manufactured exclusively by AmSafe Aviation, the foremost manufacturer of aviation seatbelts and pilot restraints in the world. (Turn over your airplane seat belt buckle. Chances are it says AmSafe.) CARES is made of the same industrial-strength webbing as your own seat belt and is engineered to the highest aviation-safety standards.INCLUDES: Restraint, instruction card, instruction video on DVD, and travel bag.