Age 60 Rule...

[Paddles_up]

OK bear with me here....I'm gonna step on my soap box and vent.
We have recently retired some of our best and most senior Captains. We have also retired our F28 jets.
Since the retired Captains are the ONLY one's still current in the F28 the company opted to have them reposition our planes to Mosses Lake for storage via Part 91.
They were in dispatch yesterday and we had forgotten to get thier in times and remaining fuel from the previous day!
When I asked the flying captain if he didn't mind looking those up in his log book, he said I don't need to look them up and he rattled off the times and fuel from memory.
I was very impressed with his long term memory skills and told them jokingly..."So much for the Age 60 Rule, you just blew THAT anitquated theory out the door"!
They both looked at me and said, "Do you THINK that will EVER go away?" (Meaning that non-sense rule.) I said yes, but it will take some time.
They said, "We want our jobs back"!
My heart sank for them. Here are two of our finest pilots in the peak of thier flying careers, forced out of work due to an antiquated and predjudiced rule!
The ONLY thing good in my oppinion about this rule is that it opens up the seniority list for the less senior.

<steps off her soap box>

[traveler]

You think 60 is bad ?

It is 56 over here ! (Labour agreement, not law).

We’ve had two court cases now from guys who wanna stay in.
Both lost. Said they signed the collective labour agreement and knew what they were gettin’ into.
And in these hard times when people lose their jobs left and right it is very difficult for them to rally up support.
And to be honest … it would probably not be too fair if all other careers would be effected by their decision to hang around longer that planned.
And on top, if they really really wanna stay in the air .. there are other ways. Just not with the airline.

You can imagine we have some flyers who sign up at some asian carrier, for money but also cause they don’t wanna sit behind the flower pots staring out the window in an electric lazy-boy. (and at a stationary view for pete’s sake).

[bridget74]

Yeah, we've got several flight instructors who are retired pilots.

The thing is, you can be unhealthy at 45, and you can be healthy at 65. I wish they'd leave it to a physician to decide. If you can keep your medical, then I think you should continue to fly until you're 65.

But as I understand it, there was quite a big push for this about five years ago, back when pilots were hard for airlines to find. Now, of course, pilots are unfortunately in oversupply, so the airlines aren't fighting so hard to extend the age 60 rule.

And whoa...some of our guys in flight training are NOT happy about having to retire at 60. And understandably so...most of them are still in good condition. And when they work in our flight training center, they make considerably less than their regular wages if they were holding a line.

Like I said, if they can keep their medical, I'm all for them continuing to fly. :smile_2:

[Lame.]

The last contract work I did away from Australia, was with an operation based in New York and Guyana.

We found this age 60 rule in the USA to be very odd.

Our Chief Pilot for the whole operation had to fly as the First Officer on any flights that were in US airspace although he was the boss.

Once outside US airspace, he could be the Captain again. :grin:

[BobbieSullivan]

...not that I have any say in any of this, but FWIW, I have to agree with Bridget: the issue should be fitness and competence, not some arbitrary age cut-off.

The issue of booting the older guys to make room for the more junior is a political argument. No more, no less.
:crazy:

[Paddles_up]

the issue should be fitness and competence



Hear! Hear!

[richkiwi]

Yes alot of our most senior captains demote themselves so they can still fly into the USA.. But what amazes me if the usa says the captain in charge has to be under 60 (for international airlines) is there an age limit on the rest of the flight deck? Can you have a aged 75 fit 1st officer for example!

[Lame.]

Well IF there is a limit for First Officers it must be higher than 60, because of the case I mentioned where our Chief Pilot used to fly as First officer in US airspace, and as you mentioned with your Captains.

For Captains I understand that in Europe it is 65, and in many Countries including Australia, New Zealand and Canada there is no hard limit.