First, I'm not Orion. So I guess I never insulted you, right?

Second, the study is of general aviation. Has nothing to do with air carriers. (Or military, for that matter) It includes everything but military and FAR 121, as far as I can tell, and more to the point, while it includes FAR 135 and 125, it also includes a huge number of non professionals. So basically, it has no relevance to this discussion. There's a big difference in a private pilot flying 30 hours a year and a pro that's flying several hundred and is retrained every 6 or 12 months.

 

I never stated that the graphs were only commercial aviation. Where did you jump to that conclusion? As for the correlation between GA and Commercial aviation, what kind of graphs are you REALLY expecting to see in commercial aviaiton? Almost everyone is over 1500 hours, so you will not see the precipitous drop if you only use commercial statistics. You'll have merely thrown out the trend that I cited.
There are very similar graphs with military personnel. I could dig up the graphs, but it's not really worth my time, since you'll then reply that it's military and has nothing to do with commercial aviation.


Let me clarify. There is an initial steep learning curve in aviation (and many other tasks); are you denying this? Are you saying that the same amount of learning occurs at 5000 hours as 500 hours?

 

You're right, you didn't claim the study was only commercial aviation...you didn't say it excluded air carrier aviation either. The trend you cited should be thrown out; it's irrelevant for the very reason you stated, as well as others. http://www.faa.gov/media/Final_Age_6...11_29_2006.pdf will take you to the final ARC report. This report cites a half dozen or more reports relevant to air carrier operation, all of which state decreasing accident rates with age WHEN COUPLED WITH INCREASING EXPERIENCE. You'll also notice the lack of studies finding the opposite. The best the supporters of the age 60 rule as it exists today can come up with is that "y-all shouldn't do it because something might happen."

There's also a brief history of the Age 60 Rule, which is informative.

As for the steep learning curve, you're right there too. I'm not sure where you're trying to go with the question about whether it continues at the same rate...obviously it doesn't. It does however continue at a varying rate and certainly doesn't turn negative at 1500 hours or any other figure. I know I passed 1500 hours a while back, and I haven't stopped learning yet. There have been a couple of times since then that I learned a whole lot really fast....I've made it a policy to avoid that as much as possible:-)

 

So to be protected from age discrimination, you have to be a certain age.

 

Sorry, that is the way the laws are written.

 

FH,

Just pointing out the oximoron which is the law. Wasn't that law pushed through by the babie boomers who didn't want to be denied a new job because of age when retirement in America was 62. Most companies wanted 20-25 good years and if they hired and trained a 40+, they had a hard time doing that while incuring higher medical and insurance expenses. Again, I'm not saying that age 60 isn't age discrimination, I'm just saying that it occures everywhere. A pilot doesn't suddenly become unsafe at 60 just like a person doesn't suddenly become capable of leading a country at 35(I think that's the age you have to be to run for president, you get my point). These are all just agreed upon limits to help assure a certain standard.

 

I think you will find that the law was pushed through at a time when baby boomers were still saying "never trust anyone over age 30".

 

You're right, I was thinking of the OWBPA.

 

I have a close friend (pilot) who "retired" at 60. After surviving the ups and downs of this industry, he still would enjoy showing up for work. To me he's not that old. We work out together at the gym. I'm looking at him thinking if that was me, I would like the option to fly longer.

So many of the pilots in this forum complain about this industry. I don't; he doesn't. I feel this is what we need to keep up front. Let the FA's complain about how they're getting duped. We can shut the door on them.

Remember how bad you wanted to be here!!!

I do...everyday!!

 

While we're talking age discrimination, why is it that as you get older, your life insurance premiums get higher. Shouldn't it be based on health? Any pro-65 takers?