I notice there has not been much acitvityu on this site for some time so hope that I can generate further discussion.
I was interested to read this thread as I was interested in research on managing the aging pilot population. The situation has been generated by the increased retirement age and the slow down in the world economy.
One item of interest is that pilots medicals in many countries do not test for mental aging. i.e. a person can have a different mental and physical age. Also ability in the simulators may not be a good indicaition of decreasing mental function due to the years of practice.
Mental acuity tests could perhaps pick up problems with pilots across all age bands that have issues!! - some people also age faster than others.
If there was a movement to no retirement age - then do we have the correct battery of tests in the medicals to differenciate between who should stay and who should be gently assisted to retire - whatever their age.
Manadatory retirement ages and pension start date ages tend to force people into set limits rather than leaving the options open and addressing the real isues of whether the individual should stay flying.
Cheers