Rebuttal against age 65 (for FoxHunter and Jim Smith)

[Oh-ryan]

Since when do we always follow what Europe does? Yeah, we have their metric system for Airman Weather, but that might be it. England makes their over age 60 guys go to the right seat for two years. They will be flying over here at Virgin or BA, so should we follow that too? Which one should we do?Just because Turkish Air has a pilot shortage and allows their guys to fly their A340s over here, doesn't mean we have to. So, should we just allow INTL pilots the opportunity? Southwest will likely never fly INTL flights. Should they be restricted because they don't fly INTL flights and the Turk pilots can fly over here at 64 years old? The reason, again, is a shortage of pilots. Should we change our rules that have been around for decades (and everyone has known about them going into this job) because Turkish Air is short on pilots? You make the call. ICAO also states that women could potentially fly 3-4 more years than guys, health wise. Should women be allowed to fly until 68 or 69 and men allowed to fly until 65? That's what they say.....You seem to agree, and if Turkey allows old Grandma's the ability to fly over here nonstop from Istanbul, then we should allow our grandma's to fly domestically at Southwest......You would think that is fair, right? Capt Granny loves you now.


Bye Bye--General Lee

You are all over the map dude and yet you still have no idea where I am coming from. Now hear this... now hear this... I AGREE with you in that we should not do something just because it's what the Europeans do. Hopefully we are clear on this. Secondly, I don't agree with what the Europeans have done with the age 60 rule (again, something that we agree on). And finally, I as long as we allow other 121 carriers to fly in our airspace past age 60 while not letting our own pilots do it is age discrimination. I don't want Gramps up there much more than you, but for the FAA and other groups that want the age 60 rule to stay EXACTLY the same and cite safety as the main reason are hypocrites if they continue to accept foreign 121 carriers to operate in our airspace with your grandmother at the controls. In your example you imply that I am prefectly fine with having an old timer at the controls of a SWA 737 because thats what RyainAir does (or whoever) over in Europe... well I am not. But what difference does it make if we ground those SWA pilots (because of safety) when sitting at the very next gate at BWI is a British Airways jet with a 64 year old captain getting ready to fly over the most densly populated air/ground space in the world. It's not about fairness, its about pointing out the hypocrisy of the pro safey crowd.

Now please continue on with your diatribe of European LCCs/regionals and your playground argument of "If all your friends jumped off a bridge would you do it too?"

 

[CaptAntoineMack]

One thing is certainly true on this subject. The older guys are for this change for obvious reasons. The young guys are against this change for obvious reasons. Almost all FO's are against this change for obvious reasons.

For all that argue this point on this thread it is about greed. If you say otherwise then you have absolutely no credibility. You can fool yourself but not others.

There is no right or wrong answer to this issue. It would be absolutely wrong to any degree to make a guy quit when there is absolutely no valid reason to make him so. Some of the best pilots I have flown with have been young and old. Some of the worst pilots I have flown with have been young and old. But neither stand out as a group being worse than one or the other. There were some old guys that I thought were ready for retirement for attitude only. Then again there are some young guys that I thought were ready for retirement because of their attitude.

Honestly, I never flew with any pilot in the airlines that I thought age had something to do with their abilities. I know at my airline that most all the retirements I have seen seem like it was just too early. And if I didn't, I just thought they let their four stripes get in the way of them being better than they were acting.

And I have a long way to go before retirement. I'm just trying to be real about this never ending issue.