How does he feel about age 60?

[roz]

Well he feels upset about it. He wants to fly to 65 or so--as long as he is able to keep his medical certificate.

Not every pilot gets to fly the pattern: fly for a regional for a few years or the military and then get hired by a major for 30 years.

He knows a lot of pilots who started at Braniff, went on to Eastern, then to Midway and then to US Airways. They have nothing to show for it. But they are great people who have a lot of experience and talent.

He spent a lot of years at U for which he has little. We decided to leave in 2001 because he needed to think about going to a better place and having a chance to upgrade back to captain. He left and has a tiny pension (I mean really tiny like less than $500 per month) from them. But two weeks after he left, 9/11 happened and it changed all of our worlds.

So now, he has to hope that he can ever upgrade back to captain before he is forced to retire.

In the interim, he has to undergo first class medicals because he is typed in his aircraft. So he's fit.

The bottom line is that the age 60 rule was never about safety. It was ALWAYS about money.

In the 1950's, the chairman of AA, C. R. Smith, wanted to reduce the cost of pensions since his pilot force was aging. Remember that pensions are based on actuarial tables. So if you get people to retire early, you get to reduce dramatically the amount they get in retirement.

So Smith tried to get Congress to pass a bill to require pilots to retire at age 60. That failed.

Feb.5, 1959 Smith, Chairman of American (and a personal friend and WWII buddy of Gen. Quesada--head of the FAA) addressed a personal plea to Gen. Quesada, acknowledging his loss on the age 60 retirement issue, and seeking an FAA regulation to solve his labor problem.

Mar. 1959 FAA initiates a complete revision of airman medical certification standards. No concern for any aspect of pilot aging is included.

April 17, 1959 FAA Administrator Quesada in a letter to the Reverend Theodore Hesburg: President of Notre Dame University; "There exists at present no sound scientific evidence that airline piloting, or any other aeronautical activity, becomes critical at any given age."

June 1959 FAA initiates the regulatory process in response to the request by C.R. Smith for a mandatory age 60 pilot retirement.

Sept. 1959 Revision of medical certification standards completed and promulgated.

Shortly thereafter, Quesada retired from the FAA and joined the American Airlines Board of Directors as a paid member.

So as you can see, the Age 60 Rule has nothing to do with safety. It was always about money.

[Lurker]

You know Roz the 60 yr old rule is enforced about US airspace too....a few airlines do let pilots fly to 65 but they can only fly certain routes. My man's airline was the first to allow flying to 65 I think.