Age 60 Fight is old news
My dad (NAL) and godfather (EAL) may have been the first to fight the age 60 retirement. They started in 1967 to try to overturn the good-ole-boys deal that FAA Administrator Quesada made with President C.R. Smith of American.
The origins of age 60 came about because C.R. Smith wanted to get rid of senior Captains that annoyed him. So the age 60 was cooked up and the rest is history.
After Dad and my Godfather (we'll call him M) failed with any chance of making a difference with this bureaucratic government rule, they adopted a different tack.
M cooked up the idea of changing his birth records to beat the age 60 retirement. Since many born back in the early part of the 20th Century did not have birth certificates, the only birth record was in the family Bible. M presented his "Family Bible" to the FAA requesting that they correct their records to show his "correct" birth date. Once the government records were corrected, EAL was presented with the "correct" birth date. which got M a few extra years flying after age 60. We all had a good laugh about this at the time.
Dad unhappily took his medicine and left at age 60. I rode the J/S on his retirement flight and he had tears in his eyes landing in Miami (LHR-MIA).
I was in on the last of the "good" flying the airlines enjoyed. Propellers went to Prop-Jets and then jets (EAL). In addition to age 60, government encroachment and inept airline management wiped out the fun I recall of the early years. Today I see it as increasingly work under a microscope, which cannot be fun. My copilots are now senior Captains. I have watched the changes today in the airline industry and have to wonder if Dad and M, were they alive today, would want to fight age 60? I took early retirement to pursue a different avenue, commercial real estate investment. Today I own and have the choice, in my hangar 50 feet behind my home, of a Staggerwing, Stearman, or Twin Comanche to go flying. God's mercy and real estate investment enabled this for me, not EAL.
My airline pilot sons have followed my advice and now as their airline (DAL) goes under, the have each invested in outside businesses for which they can exist without DAL.
Dad well told me and I counsel each of you reading this post. Don't live like a rich airline pilot, go invest your money outside the airlines. Don't wait for someone else to decide your destiny for you. ALPA nor PBGC nor your airline is going to do best for you personally.
Steve McDonald
Eastern Airlines (ret)