The Flying Circus - Introduction

This series of entries is a summary of the lessons learned while flying with a wheelchair, a patient walkie (my wife) and two kids under three. Getting this whole show through an airport and onto an airplane is definitely a circus but we have flown internationally many times with (reasonable) success. And it definitely gets easier the older the kids get! If you use a wheelchair and plan to fly, with or without kids, hopefully these notes will help you!

In 1969 the BBC first broadcast Monty Python's Flying Circus. It exemplified an off-beat, surrealistic sense of humor. Such a sense of the absurd is a valuable skill to have if you are contemplating air travel with two tots and a wheelchair. Anyone who travels in a wheelchair  knows that it is no joke. And anyone who has traveled with tiny children knows that it too is no joke. But combine these and you get a true Flying Circus, complete with performing animals and a clown!

We have made the journey from Washington, D.C. to Dublin, Ireland several times with the kids. We have also flown to San Diego and Aruba. This entry is an attempt to share the (little) advice I can offer after these experiences. I'm not saying that you will be guaranteed a pleasurable and stress free journey if you follow these steps - such a thing is impossible - but they may help ease the pain a little. The following entries cover booking your flight, packing for the flight, dealing with the airport, going through security, boarding the plane,  landing and finally dealing with jet-lag. Note that these notes assume a long-haul flight, possibly over night. Short haul is definitely easier!