Controllers Retirement Age 56

[Stan]

For those of you that think that age 60 retirement is not a safety issue and would like to see no mandatory retirement age. How would you like to have a 70 year old Tracon controller vectoring you around New York or Boston during a blizzard. Lets face it as we get older our skills diminish. Age 60 is and arbitrary age, but so is 65 and changing it to 65 won’t increase safety.

 

[satpak77]

there are retired FAA controllers working in Contract towers for private contractors WELL into their 60's my friend

 

[miles otoole]

For those of you that think that age 60 retirement is not a safety issue and would like to see no mandatory retirement age. How would you like to have a 70 year old Tracon controller vectoring you around New York or Boston during a blizzard. Lets face it as we get older our skills diminish. Age 60 is and arbitrary age, but so is 65 and changing it to 65 won’t increase safety.

Won't decrease safety either.

 

[sonny320]

there are retired FAA controllers working in Contract towers for private contractors WELL into their 60's my friend

That's correct but some of the places they work at is Ithaca NY, Greenwood MS ect...kind of a nice place to semi-retire.

 

[satpak77]

That's correct but some of the places they work at is Ithaca NY, Greenwood MS ect...kind of a nice place to semi-retire.

what does that have to do with the original posters argument about "old controllers"

I suppose a Hawker being cleared for takeoff at Ithaca is lower on the importance scale as one at Love

 

[smellthejeta]

Show me a controller who WANTS to work past 56...

 

[Tim47SIP]

There is a ton of them!

Show me a controller who WANTS to work past 56...

All of the NFCT towers in the country! There are quite a few of them. Additionally, many ARAC's such as Cairns at Ft Rucker (one of the busiest instrument training areas in the world) have retired controllers.

 

[Stan]

The retired controllers are not working in the demanding environment that most of us are working in on a daily basis.

Retired pilots can continue to fly airplanes for fun, instruct, or if someone is not concerned about their age they can be hired to fly personal planes Part 91. They just should not be allowed to fly people around that have bought a ticket on a part 121 airline.

The best captain I have flown with was months from retirement. He easily could have flown past his 60th birthday. I have also flown with many more guys during their last year that should have hung it up earlier. Age 60 is a arbitrary age, but so is 65 and increasing it will put more guys past their prime.

 

[satpak77]

Show me a controller who WANTS to work past 56...

for every pilot that wants to work past age 60, a controller wants to work past age 56

trust me on this one

 

[Spooky 1]

The retired controllers are not working in the demanding environment that most of us are working in on a daily basis.

Retired pilots can continue to fly airplanes for fun, instruct, or if someone is not concerned about their age they can be hired to fly personal planes Part 91. They just should not be allowed to fly people around that have bought a ticket on a part 121 airline.

The best captain I have flown with was months from retirement. He easily could have flown past his 60th birthday. I have also flown with many more guys during their last year that should have hung it up earlier. Age 60 is a arbitrary age, but so is 65 and increasing it will put more guys past their prime.

Stan I believe you are probably correct. Most guys at say age 42 to 52 are at their peak in stick and rudder skills. But....everyone takes the same PC and either passes or fails. At your airline, what percentage of failures are attributed to pilots over 55? Now if you have a real no BS answer for that okay, but please don't guess. I would suspect that this data is on file somewhere although not in that excact form. I used to be a Standards guy and when a pilot busted a P check, he needed a Line check within the following 30 days. This was not an assignment that kept us busy at the airline I worked for then and I suspect that P check failures are pretty well dispersed through out the seniority list. As a matter of fact there seemd to be as many F/O rechecks as Capt.s

The point is, there may be a time when you are at your peak and that time might be significantly prior to your 59th birthday, but you are still capable and qualified as a pilot. You make it sound as if a lot of your airline's most senior guys are running on empty and being carried by the F/O's, a condition which I doubt exists?