seat 0A - The jobs of Commander and F/O are different and require different skills. I am glad you 'feel comfortable ... knowing the aircraft is in their capable hands' and so you should. Baring what should be more experience in the left seat there is no reason why the F/O should not be equally as good at handling the aircraft as the Captain. And, when you are tucked up in the bunk should something go wrong the F/O is there to cope admirably until you arrive to take control of the 'situation' and make the important decisions from then on; something the F/O is not yet licensed to do. Experience, training, qualifications, promotion and personality will eventually qualify them to be in your position. I concur with cavortingcheetah's view and feel that age and life experience do play a major part in preparing a F/O for command.

Three other points:
in my experience passengers generally have more confidence if the captain is a 'little more mature';
the older you get the less you have to prove and therefore the less 'ego' there is in the flight deck which generally makes for a more pleasant environment;
being the captain is not what everyone aspires to and there are many excellent F/O's who do not want / will not make captain but are just as much support and value in their operation as anyone else.

Personally I feel 65 is old enough to be in command of a commercial airliner.
Using your experience in the sim beyond that age may well benefit the next generation providing you don't lag behind as procedures and ideas move on.

A very senior Qantas Captain said once,

"It's not about the money it's just that I love to fly"

"Why don't you go and be a testing officer at a flying school then? You can pass on all that great experience you have and you get to go home every night"

"I don't love that sort of flying!"

I don't think anyone should be flying commercially after 65 simply because the odds of them dying are too high. Even with a medical. At that kind of age and experience level, and if you are not a complete :mad:, I think we should use your particular skill-set in the simulator should one choose to make himself available. No need to be thundering around anymore. About the whole captaincy discussion; sigh and yawn. Done self-validating there gentlemen?


Just two cents from a lowly FO ;).

drfaust, where did you get that from? I was involved in pilot loss of lic insurance for many years, here is some REAL data for you. During the above time I was made aware of nine in flight deaths of front end crews, average age 37 years. There were many in flight medical emergencies but I dont have the numbers handy, however I do recall there were very few amoungst the over fifty group, it seems that if one is cursed with bad genes they seem to cause problems between about 35 and 45, I will try to dig up the numbers. By the way, this was all in North America about the time obesity began to be a serious risk factor amoungst flight crews.

It's a human right, to be able to work as long as possible, slaving in the salt mines in order to provide for the luxurious demands of fornicating ex wives and the equally luxurious but perhaps less fornicating demands of future ones.

I know we should all have a reasonable pension in place when we retire at 65, however, at the moment we are forced out of employment and won't receive a state pension until much later. In the future this gap will only increase.

Jobs outside aviation will be encouraged to work longer or have a good pension in place before pensionable age.

Years ago the 70 mph speed limit was introduced, the cars had crap brakes, infact crap everything. These days cars are so much better but we still have 70 mph...bodies and minds are also different these days.

Clunkdriver,

That may well be the case. However, I am afraid the data you are providing is not exactly relevant to the discussion. Statistically there will always be a certain percentage of people who will die of whatever cause before their 65th year because they are, as you say, blessed with those type of genes.

However, I'm pretty sure that both of us will agree that in any population the odds of people dying on the job are dramatically higher if your population is exclusively above 65 compared to a population that is say 20 to 65 years old.

People get old. With old age, the risk of death increases. At some point it's time to retire I'm afraid, especially in an industry where the lives of people are dependent on you. I can understand that people might wish to continue working, but a line needs to be drawn somewhere.

dfaust, yes, death and taxes are the only two certain things on earth, but I think with the human species its hard make firm rules as humans are all so different in many ways. I recently purchased an aircraft from a ninety six year old pilot, who drives every day in big city traffic {Toronto} who retired as an experimental Chief Test Pilot for a major aircraft builder and still enjoys doing aerobatics in his beutiful Chipmunk, and leads a very full and productive life, is also computer literate by the way, on the same trip I visited one of my contempories in his mid seventies who is a bloody wreck, so I think one has to go case by case, this of course requires tough medicals and and life style monitoring , although we had an "in house joke" when I flew the heavy metal that one shouldnt fly for three days after ones pilot medical as quite a few fell dead in this period! Myself? late seventies, sold our companies and aircraft, live on the familly farm, but still fly one corporate aircraft {two crew by the way} and fly our personel aircraft for fun, as does my wife, the only thing I find really tough is four AM starts, but then they were ever thus! By the way, as an end note our insurance underwriter would be charging over 75% more for a low time { less than 800 hours on type } 25 year old pilot, and this for less coverage, make what you will out of this, its still too much bloody money for a little 10,000lb twin!