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Old 26th Jun 2018, 17:42
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Fantome
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
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I'm not able to quote any specific figures, but am aware that the actuarial calculations for pension provision for my former airline uses a longer lifespan for retired pilots than is given by the standard UK mortality tables.
From that you might conclude that a career flying for a carrier (such as Qantas, if you don't let the thought of AJ get you down), can extend your life beyond the norm. There are not too many Norms* around the question. Those who made it to the wheelhouse for the term of their 'working' life, on average found there many compensations and consolations found in few other occupations. Yet, In my experience - thirty-five years - there were not too many who brought to the flight deck each day an awareness of those appreciations found in the writings of Richard Bach, Len Morgan, Antoine de Saint Exupery, Charles Lindbergh and their ilk. These are writers and airmen who drank deep at the well of life, with fine sensibilities. Generally speaking they carried the seeds of long lives, lived well. The recipe for this has several strands. Foremost is negating, unconsciously, those stresses that impede the retension of the active, involved and interested mind. Working with those who embodied the awareness that "It's great to be alive" was a constant delight . But with others it was a demoralising and draining experience. ('Farmer' Joe used to say "why would you feed the bastards?")

* Norm was a character devised by the makers of a lifestyle program in Australia whose slogan was "LIFE - BE IN IT!
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