I'm new to this forum but the age 65 rule change is a topic of great interest to me and mine. First, I oppose the change. Even though or because I work for a regional I want to be able to retire at 60 so I can have a few years of good health to do the things I enjoy without having a trip to look forward to. Unfortunately my company got sucked into two rounds of bankruptcy along with our parent company and we have suffered financial setbacks as well. One thing we managed to hold on to was a social security "bridge" which pays the equivalent of our SS benefits until age 65. This legislative action will effectively force me and others to work past 60 because my company has already hinted that the bridge will be gone. The law of unintended consequeces at work? The though of having 5 more years added to my sentence is almost more than I can stomach.

What I believe we are missing is if this passes and is effective within 30 days how are ICAO medical standards going to be effective for all the pilots retiring within the next six months. In other words are the AME's equipped and trained already for the new standard? Has the FAA already gotten ahead of the administrative support requirments? Have they increased the medical certification staffing for the flood of special issuances, appeals, boards, etc? I think not. My guess is it will be 2 years before the FAA is ready to go on this. Anyone have any more info on this?