Retirement Age and Lifespan

[Purpledog]

Enjoy your 17 months! I know, I know. You are in great shape and it won't happen to me. BS. Our disrupted sleep patterns, pressure cycles, exposure to radiation and crappy road food probably make these stats worse.
http://www.seeya-downtheroad.com/InformationPage/WhyRetireYoung.html

 

[Ex737Driver]

Linky no worky........

 

[Huck]

http://www.seeya-downtheroad.com/InformationPage/WhyRetireYoung.html

 

[Tejas-Jet]

You are in great shape and it won't happen to me. BS. Our disrupted sleep patterns, pressure cycles, exposure to radiation and crappy road food probably make these stats worse.

Speak for yourself. Over at "my house" we fly AM's or PM's. Bid on what suits your fancy. No disrupted sleep patterns here.

What's this crappy road food you talk about....what kinds of places does your company put you up at? Here at one hotel in one of our west Texas layovers, we get 50% off on a very nice Rib-Eye steak with all the trimmings. At another we have a Shula's retaurant in the hotel.

Pressure cycles, and exposure to radiation? If it was that bad, the medical research community would be up in arms, there would be congressional hearings and people would be running from this profession.

Lets not get over excited.

 

[Mach 80]

That old "study" is now considered worthless and invalid.

http://www.speea.org/general_info/files/life.htm

http://home.att.net/~coachthee/Archives/longevityvsretirementage.html

"The most controversial part of the old Boeing retiree data is that it shows that for every year one works beyond age 55, one loses 2 years of life span on average for the age at retirement ranging from 55 to 65.
The older study indicated that the Boeing experience was that employees retiring at age of 65 receive pension checks for only 18 months, on average, prior to death. These controversial statements may be applicable only to the older generations of retirees in the composite old Boeing retiree data. The current generation of working people in the 21st century is enjoying average life spans much longer than those of older generations in the composite old Boeing retiree data. With this understanding of time dependent life span, the current generation of working people should not be stunned by the exaggerated and distorted statement above but could express their sympathy to those older generations of people who had much shorter life spans such that they got burned out much earlier in the age range from 55 to 65.

Retirement vs. Life Expectancy​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]There is a popular myth that one dies sooner if one continues to work rather than take early retirement. Over the years, misleading charts have been circulated around Boeing showing that the later one retires, the lower the average age at death. These graphs give the impression that working longer leads to an earlier death. The charts that circulate usually show that an employee who retires at age 65 receives an average 18 monthly checks before dying. Even though these charts are incorrect, they continue to circulate around the company every couple of years. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]SPEEA recently received an updated chart from Boeing showing the status of retirees under the heritage Boeing Company Employee Retirement Plan (see chart depicting January 1, 2000 data). Each point in the plot represents a retiree. The X-axis shows the age at retirement. The Y-axis shows one of two things: If the retiree is still alive, it shows how many years the employee has been retired. If the retiree has died, it shows how many years the employee lived during retirement. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This chart shows that those who retire at age 65 live much longer than the myth of "18 months". In fact, many who retire at 65 live many years. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Some of the points gather together in vertical columns: there are vertical columns of points at age 55, 62 and 65. These correspond to when early retirement is first possible ... when Social Security may be first paid ... and when Social Security is fully payable. There is also a less distinct clumping at age 60, when the Boeing benefit is unreduced. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The points also gather in two horizontal lines. One at 0 "years since retirement". These are generally employees in poor health who retire and immediately pass away. The other horizontal line is at 4.5 years since retirement. This line is caused by the early retirement window that was offered in 1995 which was very popular. [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Finally, there are points that show retirement before age 55--these are disability retirements. [/FONT]

 

[thepotato232]

I'm sure you guys all realize that both the new and old "data" exist only to appease the crop of decision-makers that happens to be in charge at the time. The data is massaged until it looks pretty. Since they used to want to back up the Age 60 rule, they've done that in the past. Now that the wind has changed, the numbers are suddenly very favorable for late retirement. If you think flying is that hazardous to your health, nobody's stopping you from retiring at 60. Even if you don't want to go to 65, you're dreaming if you're still counting on a big fat pension at the 60 mark.

Pilots are living longer past retirement because the chain-smoking, alcoholic senior captain is as much a thing of the past as the TWA 707 he used to fly. Age 60 isn't protecting anyone except junior FOs and regional pilots looking to move up. As a member of that demographic, I'd rather fly the extra five years.

 

[FNG_that's me]

we get 50% off on a very nice Rib-Eye steak with all the trimmings. At another we have a Shula's retaurant in the hotel.

yeah, that's good for longevity.

 

[woog315]

Here at one hotel in one of our west Texas layovers, we get 50% off on a very nice Rib-Eye steak with all the trimmings. At another we have a Shula's retaurant in the hotel.

Believe it or not eating a ribeye steak with all the typical super fatty/salty restaurant side dishes isn't even close to healthy. It's often worse than fast food.

 

[Huck]

As a member of that demographic, I'd rather fly the extra five years.

Speak for yourself. And it ain't 5 more years at the top, it's 5 more years in that 1900 right seat..

 

[thepotato232]

Do you honestly believe that? I'll be out of the 1900 right seat in a matter of months, thanks. And I'm tired of other members of my age group speaking for me. I'll be content if I never make it to the mythical "top," as a lot of career airline pilots haven't. The anti-65 argument has been swallowed by a lot of people who are convinced they'll be building seniority at the same airline for their whole careers. Bad news, guys - most pilots don't. Did you sleep through the collapse of TWA? Pan-Am? Eastern? Do you think every one of the current carriers will still be here thirty years from now? As we are all so fond of saying, the industry is cyclical, and what's old will be new again. The idea of having to restart at a new airline with Age 60 breathing down my neck is far more daunting to me than the idea of never making senior captain on the 777 fleet. Pensions as we knew them are gone, guys. I'd take five years of earning potential over the promise of a fat pension any day. Plus, there's that whole "love what I'm doing" part of the job that a lot of people seem to ignore. It's strange that the youngest guys in the industry are the ones whining the loudest about their right to retire early.

My extra five years won't be on the top or the bottom, it will be somewhere in the middle. And so will just about everyone else's.

 

[Benhuntn]

If radiation exposure kills U-2 pilots and astronauts would all be dead by 35.

 

[Huck]

I'll be out of the 1900 right seat in a matter of months, thanks.

O.k., then, great. Now what. What job do you want next?

Pick the next career progression you have in your dreams. Now, close the door on that dream for 5 extra years. But that's o.k., you love flying, right?

Hey man, I love your optimism - this ain't gonna hurt much, and besides, I love my job. That's great. You'd better.....

 

[Occam's Razor]

If radiation exposure kills U-2 pilots and astronauts would all be dead by 35.

Maybe it doesn't kill 'em, but it might make put on diapers and attack Air Force chicks...

 

[foofighter145]

The baby boomer generation was not known for it's health patterns and conscious lifestyle changes toward well being. Most of these dropping after 60 are of the old school thought - drink hard every night, no exercise except 12oz's, bad sleep patterns, and most likely poor lifestyle patterns all round

They've not only managed to screw up their own health but the countries at the same time

I wouldn't worry too much - that'll kill you too

 

[whymeworry?]

If radiation exposure kills U-2 pilots and astronauts would all be dead by 35.

U2 pilots and astros don't fly 18 days per month, genius.

 

[peter185]

U2 pilots and astros don't fly 18 days per month, genius.

And how exactly do you know what the ops tempo of a U2 pilot is?

100% civil and proud of it, give me a break.

 

[Gorilla]

Pressure cycles, and exposure to radiation? If it was that bad, the medical research community would be up in arms, there would be congressional hearings and people would be running from this profession.

Hahahaha! Oh Lord, that is funny. Thanks for the laugh.





Oh wait, you're serious, aren't you?

 

[tyuwerty]

Speaking from experience... Many retired airline pilots do drop dead within 5 years of their retirement date. The reason they die isn't initially poor health, it is depression caused by missing the lifestyle and the job (remember it was a much better job 25 years ago).

1 year after my Father's last flight his health started to fail with stomach and heart problems. The guy had never been seriously sick or in the hospital once his entire life. 18 months after his last flight he was hospitalized because he was not able to keep food or medicine in his stomach.

We were lucky, a Doctor caught the root cause (depression), gave him some meds for it and he got better within a few weeks. That was 10 years ago, I know 3 of his friends that were not as lucky and were dead within 5 years of their last flight.

I can't point to "statistics", but from real life experience, I can say that it does happen to "HEALTHY" pilots from the older generation.

 

[Tejas-Jet]

Believe it or not eating a ribeye steak with all the typical super fatty/salty restaurant side dishes isn't even close to healthy. It's often worse than fast food.

Sure...if you eat it every day. Like my doc says, "Nothing is bad if consumed in moderation."

I eat plenty of salads and low fat stuff. Even on the road.

 

[thepotato232]

Pick the next career progression you have in your dreams. Now, close the door on that dream for 5 extra years. But that's o.k., you love flying, right?

Hey man, I love your optimism - this ain't gonna hurt much, and besides, I love my job. That's great. You'd better.....

I'm not worried about the career progression I have in my dreams, I'm worried about the one I'm really going to have. You know, the one where I work my way up and join "The Best Airline in the World" until they go through furloughs or bankruptcy. That's when they drop me on my ass, and I start over with "Plan B" Airways. Since you're laboring under the assumption that you'll spend your entire "established" career with a single airline, I guess you haven't considered what will happen in the extremely likely event that you're not that lucky. Did you read the middle of my post, where I talked about all of the guys who had that same confidence until they had to start over with a new airline in their forties? Those guys make up the majority of the 59-year-olds you're trying so desperately to remove from your left seat. They're not $300K-a-year senior captains. They never will be, and there's a good chance neither of us will be. You shouldn't spend your career racing to a fictional job.

What are you fighting to protect, anyway? Your five-year delay argument assumes two things: That every pilot who can work to 65 actually will, and that the only reason airlines hire new pilots is due to retirement. Attrition will change at many levels in the airlines, but it won't stop. I won't spent five years flying left seat on the 1900 - I'll probably fly an extra year on the 1900, an extra year at the next job, and so on.

Age 65 will not completely freeze the industry for five years - the feds coudn't do that if they tried. And I would love the chance to spend an extra five years flying, even if I spend more time in the regionals. The fact that the overwhelming majority of the old crowd wants to keep flying should give you pause about what you'll want to do when you're one of them. What terrible things have happened to you in your career that make you so eager for retirement? I'd take a jet over a golf course any day, even in the right seat.