Corportate Part 91 ops re: JAA with 2nd class physical.

[con-pilot]

Seeing that the age 60 rule has been brought to attention how the issue of 1st class physicals on a strictly Part 91 pure Corporate Flight Department operation. I have heard a lot of rumors but little or no facts on this issue.

I know that there is no problem in the UK on US pilots flying Part 91 with 2nd class physical and I have not been ramp checked anywhere else.

(PS from a soon to be “old geezer”)

[bugg smasher]

Hey Con Pilot,

Being perilously close myself, perhaps you’ll let me impart a useful pointer or two.

Geezing and flying are not mutually exclusive activities, you just have to be more careful about things that didn’t concern you in your ‘salad’ days. Which glass, for example, you put your teeth in. Remembering which side of the cockpit you put that glass is also important, wouldn’t want to surprise the young feller. Never, under any circumstances accidental or otherwise, leave them attached to the mike.

The loss of hearing that naturally accompanies advancing years can sometimes make the words ‘intercontinental’ and ‘incontinence’ sound oddly identical, as well as frustrating to pronounce when your choppers are soaking in the alka seltzer. And although flatulence can be technically considered a form of thrust, it doesn’t really make the jet go faster. One of aviation’s puzzling paradoxes, it has been strongly rumored to make trips a lot longer.

Always remember though, if you can, that a wealth of experience makes up for many age-induced frailties, with the proviso that being able to see the far side of the cockpit doesn’t entirely qualify as ‘distant’ vision. Perhaps of more significance, a checklist that is unreadable any closer than halfway across the flight deck may be a reliable indicator that geezerhood looms nigh, might want to start practicing your war stories on the dog. If Fido stays awake, try easing said wisdom into a human context. Watch carefully for body language. Just remember, again if you are at all able, the best listeners are other geezers; what they can’t hear, they just make up anyways.

Geezerdom is nature’s reward for a long and adventurous life well-lived. When I see an old-timer proudly displaying hair that was once on his head, now growing copiously out his nostrils and earlobes, it wrings tears of painful nostalgia out of my rheumy eyes. Most young puppies would call it embarrassment, but what the hell would they know about anything anyways?

Now where did I put that damn nose-hair trimmer?

bugg

[AA717driver]

con--Everyone in my department gets a First Class and lets it lapse to Second Class. We go all over and no one has had a problem.

Being paranoid, I keep my First Class current.;) I think being part 91 lets us escape a lot of hassle.

We'll be making our first post-election trip to France in a couple of weeks. I let you know how it goes. (If they have internet in the French prisions...)

bugg--Excellent post on the effects of aging. I don't need glasses for reading yet but I do routinely put my dog to sleep relating stories from my past.:D

Cheers! TC