There is an old saying around airports that there are old pilots and there are bold pilots...but no old, bold pilots That pretty much sums up my attitude about cockpit age. I'm 64 1/2. As I remember from my former life as a newsman...this has long been nothing more than a pilot's union issue, designed to keep a continued supply of new union members. There is no doubt us geezers need more frequent check-ups. However, as a more-or-less regular flyer (mostly on SWA), I absolutely believe that physical/mental test results should be the determining factor.
Frankly, the NASA episode this week raises far more serious questions to me about emotional stability of the encroaching number of non male pilots . And, we should be much more questoning about maintenence programs on those foreign busses which financial losers (like AWA, AA, Delta, etc) buy "on the cheap" and, I worry, they may maintain the same way. .
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