1261 days to go!

[tomgoodman]

"Wouldn't be easier to make it 12am eastern..?"

"If it was up to me, I would make it 12am GMT."

"International dateline would be better."

Which time zone does the FAA use to determine that a pilot has reached age 65? For accuracy, the geezermeter should be synchronized to that one.

 

[Andy]

475!!


I can't believe I was able to get that in so long after midnite central.

 

[Whataburger]

475!!


I can't believe I was able to get that in so long after midnite central.

Well done Andy!

Everyone remembers their first time.

 

[Andy]

Well done Andy!

Everyone remembers their first time.

Wow. I was the 50 year old virgin.

 

[Quimby]

4 7 4

 

[RJLooser]

:laugh: I love the Geezermeter!

Hey Bake, did ya ever get your aviatars back?

 

[ALGFLYR]

I love this thread! The East/West fighting about US Airway's always seemed to dominate this site. Now, with the Airtran/Southwest combination, anything dealing with US Airways is usually 2 or 3 pages deep... (not a bad thing)... But through it all, this thread remained on page one without the political fights... best thread ever IMHO...

 

[Apl]

I understand the US was just trying to align with the rest of the world (ICAO), so now it's done. I highly doubt it will be raised again unless some miracle cure for aging of the mind and body occurs. Yep, it screwed all us younger people for awhile, but things ARE starting to move again, so I think we're just going to have to live with 65; a lot of people aren't planning on working that long anyway so it's not like it will be everyone anyway.

 

[Juniority]

a lot of people aren't planning on working that long anyway so it's not like it will be everyone anyway

Oh really? That's not what we're seeing at Southwest. They're all staying. The only ones going out are being dragged off property due to medical problems (kicking and screaming, leaving fingernail marks in the flooring).

I was in the OAK crew lounge a couple of months ago doing some ground time. It was early afternoon and quiet. I could hear one of the assistant chiefs on the phone with one of our old guys talking about his medical condition. It was a weird sounding conversation because I was only hearing one side of it, but the old cappy was obviously seriously bent out of shape about having been told he was a medical-out. It sounded like he was borderline irrational and expected the OAK cheifs to work some sort of magic for him.

Guys leaving before the 364th day of their 64th year? Yeah, right.

 

[Andy]

Oh really? That's not what we're seeing at Southwest. They're all staying. The only ones going out are being dragged off property due to medical problems (kicking and screaming, leaving fingernail marks in the flooring).

I was in the OAK crew lounge a couple of months ago doing some ground time. It was early afternoon and quiet. I could hear one of the assistant chiefs on the phone with one of our old guys talking about his medical condition. It was a weird sounding conversation because I was only hearing one side of it, but the old cappy was obviously seriously bent out of shape about having been told he was a medical-out. It sounded like he was borderline irrational and expected the OAK cheifs to work some sort of magic for him.

Guys leaving before the 364th day of their 64th year? Yeah, right.

UAL's SSC (system scheduling committee) posts monthly reports on multiple scheduling aspects of UAL. One of the pages involves numbers of pilots on property and off property, broken down into several subheadings. One of those subheadings is retirement, broken into early and normal (I chuckle at the 'normal' column as that is now 65).
Prior to the change, UAL had 25-30 retirements per month. Over the last year, the number of 'early' retirements has fluctuated between 0-3 per month with an average of less than 1 per month (a lot of zero 'early' retirement months).

My guess that those 'early' retirements also left fingernail marks on the floor of flight ops.

I understand the US was just trying to align with the rest of the world (ICAO), so now it's done. I highly doubt it will be raised again unless some miracle cure for aging of the mind and body occurs. Yep, it screwed all us younger people for awhile, but things ARE starting to move again, so I think we're just going to have to live with 65; a lot of people aren't planning on working that long anyway so it's not like it will be everyone anyway.

I highly doubt that it'll stay 65. ICAO's still 65; when they move it higher, expect a big push to move it higher here in the US. I expect to see it changed to no less than 67 before 2020. I don't want it; it's just likely to happen.

My personal take is that there's a finite number of years that they can raise retirement age and maintain a reasonable level of safety. Hopefully they will do a phased in age increase of something like 1 month increase each quarter ... 4 month increase each year. That would mitigate some of the negative impact of an age change and allow them to reach a maximum 'safe' age because getting your medical renewed is a joke.

Or maybe a lot of those people who were indifferent to the age change last time will fight it tooth and nail next time? Nah, I'm dreaming.