I think I know him, I believe he was 23 when hired a few months after me. We had a 24yr. old in my new hire class, Sept. of 1985. I was 26 but so was another guy, our class's average age was 28 with a range of 24-34. All of us are below number 400 today, mostly in our mid 50's with a few that are over 60.

During the (DL South) hiring boom of 1985-1991 the average age of new hire classes kept going up, about 1yr. per year, ie. in 1986, it was 29, in 1987 it was 30, in 1988, it was 31, etc. So there is a huge clump of guys in that 55 age bracket in the top 6000.

The reason for this upward newhire age creep is, Delta's propensity to hire military guys, (90%) and the military training commitments kept going up as well. When I went into the Air Guard, in 1983, it was 5 years, having just gone up from 4 years. Now the committment is what, 10 years? So the average age military pilot getting out after 10 years will be about 33-34, instead of 28-29.

Of course, if he's smart, he won't get out now. He'll stay in for 20+ years, 'retire' and then get an airline job, when the top 6000 Delta pilots all retire in the same few years, about 2020-2025.

I don't know what the NW hiring numbers and ages were at that time, 1985-1991, not sure where their big clump of same age guys is, but judging from all the blue in the 55 age bracket in the top 6000, I'd say it's about the same as the south side.