60, or 65, or even 70, is an arbitrary number. Aviation thrives on arbitrary numbers - you see it all the time in aircraft certification criteria
and myriad number-based rules. However, most of the enlightened world has put anti-age discrimination into law. Hence pilots should NOT be singled out for special treatment (of the wrong kind) on the basis of some number.
I have flown with guys who were well past it by the time they were in their late 40's or early 50's. Some who never even had the 'right stuff' at 30 - and probably never would. But they made it to command. These are the ones who do need to be weeded out by the check and training system, because they sure won't get better as they age.
At the other end of the smarts spectrum, I have a couple of close friends one of whom is mid 70's and the other just turned 80. They still pass their first class medicals and can still fly safely, though they only dabble in it now. In fact the guy in his 70s recently did a B737 Type Rating simply because he had no jet time and wanted to see how hard it was. He found that it wasn't.
Since turning 60 I have done two jet and one complex turbo-prop type ratings and did not find any of it difficult. What did begin to hurt the old body was the tiring effect of successive maximum duty days and it was this that pushed me into giving up full-time flying - oh and they stiffed me on entitlements, but that's another story.... I am now fortunate to have a part-time position with the rarely-found freedom to actually manage my fatigue like the book says and refuse any trip I don't like. Lucky me.
So, it should be acknowledged by the industry that deterioration with age is a highly variable process. Perhaps all civil aviation authorities could learn from Australian CASA, which has its own way of dealing with us old-timers, while acknowledging the law against age discrimination. As a pilot ages, CASA keeps upping the ante on their medical requirements. Ever with their snouts in the trough, the medical specialists keep upping their costs. Setting up appointments (two months' notice needed to see aviation-approved opthamologists and cardiologists in some cities) and running all over town to jump through hoops every six months becomes a pain in the bum. Chuck in all the peripheral bullsh!t like recurrent security courses, dangerous goods certification, CRM, police checks for ID etc every two years and that natural part of aging - intolerance (aka grumpy old man/woman syndrome) - means most go gracefully around the 65 year mark anyway. A few do need to hang on past that age because they have had a few wives (some of them their own).
If the embuggerance of medicals and certification does not do it, young guns waiting for the LHS may need to pay off the right people in the rostering department to ensure that the old timers cop all the long, back-of-clock trips, with minimum rest. That must soon translate to health issues which will get to the hangers-on eventually. Then their most recent wives can look after them in their decrepitude. Quite right, too.
So, Gen X and Gen Y, stop your whining, you will be 65 soon enough.
Last edited by Mach E Avelli; 30th May 2013 at 10:04.