Older pilots....
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 1,113
Likes: 1
From: UK
My single pilot public transport medical certificate runs out on 21 April 2012 but I'm 60 on 1 Feb 2012. Think I might claim on the 'loss of licence' for those 2 months?
PS. No statins here and not a shift lost, due sickness, since I left the mil in '97.
PS. No statins here and not a shift lost, due sickness, since I left the mil in '97.
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 236
Likes: 0
From: Cheshire
Talk to any psychologist and they'll tell you that there are many 'ages' to a person:
Psychological age (mental age)
Biological age (how your body has aged)
Chronological age (how old you are in years)
..and there are a couple of others that escape me for the moment. Yet it doesn't matter about the first two. All the CAA care about is the latter of course. Such a shame because it really counts for very little these days.
Psychological age (mental age)
Biological age (how your body has aged)
Chronological age (how old you are in years)
..and there are a couple of others that escape me for the moment. Yet it doesn't matter about the first two. All the CAA care about is the latter of course. Such a shame because it really counts for very little these days.
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
From: Montreal
old age
to all the young pilots out there,..It is the first time I write on the forum; because this is non-sense to denigrate older pilots.
I have flown and went in approx 30 countries and I had in my career 5 engine out on singles, one engine out on a twin, a transmission out on a single, almost lost a blade on a 205, and many other things in 40 years of flying, no crash except the transmission out for which I survived. I know how to navigate without a GPS in the Artic or in the deep jungle or in the desert or over the water, I know how to stay cool in a emergency and act rapidely because of my experience, I know how to not put myself in trouble, I know when to say NO to my boss or my client, I know my limits in the bad weather, I know a lots of things that , yessss it take 40 years to learn and yet I don´t know all.
Do you young guys out there know that much; so please don´t tell us that at 60 years of age we need to get out of this business or we don´t have sufficient reflex to react or else.
On the contrary; the industry should be glad to use us, because at the end they can send us to any job and the boss do not ear a damn thing about us.
As far as I am concern, the only thing that should stop us older guys to fly is in fact or medical and nothing esle.
Cheers all
Joined: May 2002
Aviation Qualifications: ATP+Mil
Posts: 18,633
Likes: 1,072
From: Downeast
LW sums it up in a single sentence.....
Until one reaches that capability....you are not a real asset to the operator. As a Chief Pilot....there is nothing as nice as having a group of folks workinmg with you that need only to be assigned a task knowing it will be done, done right, done safely, and the customer will be happy with it all.
Sadly....it takes a long while to get to that status....and at some point....you lose that status....but it should be an subjective decision based upon perormance and some artificial construct like "Days since Birth".
they can send us to any job and the boss do not ear a damn thing about us.
Sadly....it takes a long while to get to that status....and at some point....you lose that status....but it should be an subjective decision based upon perormance and some artificial construct like "Days since Birth".
Avoid imitations
Joined: Nov 2000
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 15,110
Likes: 1,083
From: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
..and there are a couple of others that escape me for the moment.
)Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 1,308
Likes: 0
From: Cornwall
pushing 64
.... and hoping to keep going till I drop but maybe I'll quit if I win the lottery. Mind you the midnight shifts are getting harder to take and I can no longer drive 6 hours, put in a 12 hour shift and do another the following day.
G.
G.
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 1,113
Likes: 1
From: UK
About 220/year for me on HEMS. (2200 hrs MD902 in 10 years of ambulance work)
I'm just getting the hang of all this military and parapublic low level hands on single pilot* stuff (8600hr in 31 years) and I get 'retired' by some outdated age rule!
(Even more frustrating now I've just found out that my single pilot medical certificate remains valid after my 60th birthday!!!)
(* Apart from 5 years instructing SAR on the SK)
I'm just getting the hang of all this military and parapublic low level hands on single pilot* stuff (8600hr in 31 years) and I get 'retired' by some outdated age rule!
(Even more frustrating now I've just found out that my single pilot medical certificate remains valid after my 60th birthday!!!)
(* Apart from 5 years instructing SAR on the SK)
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 33
Likes: 1
From: UK
Retirement age
I noticed on the teletex this morning that with effect from April next year in the UK there will no longer be a stautuory retirement age......unless of course you are a pilot having regular medicals!!! 
