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Age 60 informal poll

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Abolish the Age 60 Rule for other that Part 91 pilots?

  • Yea

    Votes: 668 35.5%
  • Nay

    Votes: 1,214 64.5%

  • Total voters
    1,882
Hurry up and drop off the first page so we can bury this dead horse. The FAA will change the rule with or without this poll.
 
Interesting read put out by the APA (American pilots union)

Age 60 Retirement

In 2005, the Senate aviation subcommittee adopted language on a voice vote, requiring the FAA to align the mandatory retirement age to an ICAO standard under development. Although not scheduled for a Senate floor vote, it is anticipated that action on Age 60 will take place during this session. The House has not indicated a time frame. We continue to express our opposition to any change. Following is a synopsis of the ICAO process.

ICAO Retirement Age Proposal

The Joint Aviation Requirements (JAR) is a series of regulations implemented by the European states of the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA). These replace national regulations so that a harmonized set of standards are applied by all states. The aim is to allow a seamless interchange of aircraft, operations, training and licensing throughout the JAA states. A new system of European aviation regulations (EASA - the European Aviation Safety Agency) was introduced in September 2003, and will gradually supersede the JAR.

ICAO is currently reviewing a proposal to increase the upper age limit for airline pilots from 60 to 65 years. A State letter on the subject was circulated to the member countries in December 2003 and 112 replied. Of these, 83% indicated that an international age limit above 60 years would be appropriate for airline pilots. Seventy two Countries would welcome an international upper age limit of 65 years for pilots engaged in multi-crew operations and a further six Countries preferred no upper age limit at all. Many were of the opinion that only one pilot of age 60 years or older should be accepted in any one flight crew. 16% indicated their preference to maintain the current upper age limit of 60 years, citing possible safety risks and a lack of convincing data that flying after age 60 is safe.

In the light of the responses to the State letter, a proposal to amend Annex 1 to increase the upper age limit for pilots was circulated to the member States in February 2005. This proposed the following new wording for Annex 1:

2.1.10.1 A Contracting State, having issued pilot licenses, shall not permit the holders thereof to act as pilot-in-command of an aircraft engaged in international commercial air transport operations if the license holders have attained their 60th birthday or, in the case of operations with more than one pilot where the other pilot is younger than 60 years of age, their 65th birthday.
2.1.10.2 Recommendation. - A Contracting State, having issued pilot licenses, should not permit the holders thereof to act as co-pilot of an aircraft engaged in international commercial air transport operations if the license holders have attained their 65th birthday.

An ICAO Standard, as is paragraph 2.1.10.1, represents a mandatory minimum requirement and member States must notify ICAO if they do not meet the Standard. States can choose to impose a more restrictive limit. A "Recommendation", is regarded as 'desirable' and does not represent a formal minimum requirement.

Current Situation

The replies to the State letter distributed in February of 2005 were discussed by the ICAO Air Navigation Commission in November 2005. The Commission agreed that a report for consideration by the ICAO Council should be drafted and it is anticipated that the Council will review this in the early part of 2006. The final Amendment is intended to become applicable in November 2006.

The current JAR Medical Standards for the Class 1 Examination are demanding. The exams are required annually if under 40 years of age and every 6 months if over 40 years of age. The exam is more extensive than the FAA Class I and specific differences include more detailed hearing requirements, a Lung Function (Peak Flow) Test, a Hemoglobin Blood Test, a Cholesterol Blood Test, and a Chest X-Ray. All of these items are not required every 6 months. Additionally, the published UK guidelines on examinations indicate exams cost around $620. The LAC committee will provide copies of the specific ICAO medical standards if desired.

The JAA Member States include the following:

United Kingdom Turkey Finland Monaco
Ireland Poland Malta Slovak Republic
Norway France Estonia Sweden
Switzerland Cyprus Netherlands Latvia
Czech Republic Denmark Austria Iceland
Slovenia Croatia Hungary Germany
Portugal Greece Belgium Lithuania
Romania Italy Spain Luxembourg
 
G4G5 said:
Interesting read put out by the APA (American pilots union)

The current JAR Medical Standards for the Class 1 Examination are demanding. The exams are required annually if under 40 years of age and every 6 months if over 40 years of age. The exam is more extensive than the FAA Class I and specific differences include more detailed hearing requirements, a Lung Function (Peak Flow) Test, a Hemoglobin Blood Test, a Cholesterol Blood Test, and a Chest X-Ray. All of these items are not required every 6 months. Additionally, the published UK guidelines on examinations indicate exams cost around $620. The LAC committee will provide copies of the specific ICAO medical standards if desired.

Mixing apples and oranges???

The INITIAL Class 1 medical calls for all those tests, conducted in the case of the UK at Aviation House, Gatwick for about the $620 mentioned. The renewal is much like the FAA Class 1 conducted by the standard JAA AME in your local town/city. There is also a great difference in standard between the initial and renewal. Fitness has not really caught on in Europe. You would be hard pressed to find a non smoking cockpit, non smoking restaurant, low fat menu through most of Europe.

Different union, same school.:(
 
Hi! It's Dave.

In this challenging economic climate, abolishing the Age 60 rule is indeed a necessary step in the process. My limo driver shops at Wal-Mart, and he tells me that there are lots of elderly people working there. Since you can work at Wal-Mart when you're over 60, and flying an airplane on autopilot is SIGNIFICANTLY less stressful than greeting people at the door and handing yellow smiley stickers to shoppers, it's clear to me that Age 60 is purely an arbitrary age, and should be changed immediately.

Imagine the training costs we could save by keeping these pilots here. Even better, we now open up the applicant pool significantly, and therefore we can REDUCE salaries yet again. When pilots feel that they are "just fortunate to get the job", they tend not to complain about wages and work rules.

Jet Blue EMB rates are a great example of this. I am still pleasantly surprised that Jet Blue pilots still haven't unionized as well. The future there will prove to be very exciting as management can change their work rules, furlough out of seniority, and conduct a wide variety of "other" tactics. These pilots won't know what hit them until it's too late.

Hey, Frank, does Jet Blue management still have a copy of your old playbook? That thing is like Gold. I can't wait until Saturday so that we can tee it up again and laugh at how desparate the industry has become.
 

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