Originally Posted by
IQuitEagle
Get a clue. It is not the only industry which requires mandatory retirement at a certain age. Some examples off the top of my head: FBI and other federal agents (57), ATC controllers (56- with certain exceptions), some states Supreme Court Justices, Federsl Psrk Rangers, etc. etc....
But the requirement aside, I'd rather not be flying on a plane with an 80 year old pilot, even if he/she was healthy and sound of mind. I don't want to share the roads with them, let alone the skies.
You need to get a clue. Mandatory retirement for pilots has had much more to do with getting rid of senior pilots at the top of the pay scale than it ever did with safety. I'd rather fly with Hoot Gibson any day than some of these cheesesteak eating goobers in their mid 30s and 40s that are overweight, big as a house and one step from a coronary. Whether you can fly should have more to do with how well you take care of yourself and perform on flight checks than an arbitrary limit. The examples you cited are an agency or company placing limits on its employees, not an industry wide limit. And more and more of these are falling due to age discrimination lawsuits. Comparing what an FBI agent does to what we do in the cockpit is very different. Last time I checked there were some Supreme court judges will into their 80s, so I don't know what you are talking about. All the judges where I live are pretty old, and they keep forcing them out of retirement to cover for younger Judges for whatever reason.
The only business of the FAA is how I perform on flight checks and my flight physical. Anything else is none of their business. When you give a government agency an inch, they'll try and take a mile. Just look at the TSA.