Originally Posted by ADIRU
An FAA class I medical as a true measure of aviation "fitness" is a .....joke.
If you want to see a real physical for the risk involved, go take an life insurance physical for a 30 or 40 million dollar policy (typical narrowbody hull replacement cost). Especially at say 63 or 64 years old. Good luck finding anyone to write coverage for you at that age. And that's for an average guy whose greatest risk day-to-day is shaving...not executing a CAT III after being up all night flying back from Osaka.
We don't fly critical parts to their failure point, they're replaced based on time in service or number of cycles because failure probability is either unknown or increases geometrically after that point, which increases risk. A pilot is a critical part, point of failure is generally unknown or variable, and this part should be replaced at a point early enough in its usable life to insure little or no increased risk to the traveling public or coworkers.
My 2 cents.
Work till you die, for all I care. Just not in an airline pilots seat.
Holy crap!!! thank you, thank you, thank you, Now I wont be the only one who feels this way. Lets talk about performance...not one of you older capts can sit here and say you are as sharp at 59 as you were at age 43....not one....its a fact of life....everybody I talk to says "man when your capt gets to 55 or so you better watch him"....I am sure that there are some older capts that could fly past 60 and still be sharp....but the majority will not be able to....Im not sure that the FAA is right on the money but I think they are in the ball park...someone help me out ...isn't the bill written so as to have a younger copilot in the right seat if you are flying over 60...why???? To babysit the capt???? Bullcrap!!! (if that is wrong I take that part back) I just walked away from a corporate job that was holding me over until I get recalled because the man was 63 and didnt have the abuilty to fly a CJ...its a 172 with jet engines for christ sake.....its not about how many hours you have....its how many more are you gonna get!!!!!!
Also, for you people that are concerned about your retirements....money should never take precidence over safety!!!! I dont care about your retirement. Home Depot will put you to work part time. The FAA didnt write the reg with money in mind....I believe it was safety. Now Im not a big faa fan but Im on board with this one. For the MD-80 capt.....what have you been doing with your money???? My wife is a nurse and I now drive a truck for a living with little pilot service on the side, and my kid goes to college.
Im not normally a nasty person, but enough is enough with this age 60 crap.