Rule change would benefit airline pilots
In late September, FAA Administration Administrator Marion Blakey established a forum of airline, labor, and medical experts to recommend whether the agency should allow one of the two pilots on the flight deck to be older than age 60.
Airline pilots across the country will be watching this one closely--and aspiring airline pilots should, too. That includes prospective college students considering aviation degrees and cockpit careers (see "Why Did You Pick That School?" p. 22). An individual's income normally increases each year he or she is in the workforce, and nobody disagrees that the so-called "Age 60" rule costs pilots what should be the five highest-paying years of their careers (assuming retirement at age 65).
The Age 60 rule has also deterred some people who have considered changing careers and pursuing jobs as airline pilots. AOPA Flight Training contributor Jeff Pardo is one example; in this issue, he writes about a career change he ultimately didn't make (see "The Road Not Taken," p. 46). Instead, Pardo decided to enjoy a wide variety of flying in general aviation aircraft, both fixed-wing and helicopters.
Between 1999 and 2004, the FAA conducted five studies on the relationship of pilot age to accidents. As recently as July 2005, Federal Air Surgeon Jon L. Jordan testified before a Senate subcommittee in support of the Age 60 rule.
Blakey specifically seeks a recommendation as to whether the United States should adopt a new International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standard that will allow one of the two pilots on the flight deck to be older than 60. Beginning in November, ICAO--which is the United Nations' aviation organization--will increase the upper age limit for pilots to 65, provided that one of the two pilots in the cockpit is younger than age 60.
The Age 60 Aviation Rulemaking Committee was asked to complete its work within 60 days. We'll let you know what they recommend.
Did a consumer flight simulation program on your personal computer, like Microsoft Flight Simulator or X-Plane, have anything to do with your interest in learning to fly? I recently attended the fifth annual Aviation Simulation (Avsim) Conference and was impressed by the variety of people in attendance. Even more interesting was the discovery that, give or take, about one-third of the flight simulation community represented there holds a pilot certificate (although not all of the pilots possess a current medical certificate).
For years there has been anecdotal evidence that experience with a personal-computer-based flight simulator might encourage somebody to seek flight training, or help the individual to master tasks more quickly in the aircraft. Take the story of Herb Lacy, an enterprising Naval Academy graduate. In 1998, his lifelong dream was fulfilled when he was accepted into flight training--but he had never flown an airplane. So he bought a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator and used software tools to create a representation of the Beech T-34C Mentor in which he would learn to fly. He spent more than 40 hours flying it before climbing into the real airplane, and he graduated near the top of his class (see "Future Flight: Tomorrow's Training," April 2000 AOPA Pilot).
Did use of a simulator help you through the process of learning to fly? If so, I'd like to hear from you. Please drop me an e-mail and tell me about your experience. We may address this subject in a future issue of the magazine.
We get a lot of requests to help college students promote research projects--more than we could possibly accommodate--but every now and then, one strikes us as especially relevant to our mission in support of flight training. An Embry Riddle Aeronautical University grad student (and certificated flight instructor) is conducting just such a project, which investigates the training of new CFIs.
Flight instructors, flight instructor candidates, designated pilot examiners, and new private pilots (certificated within the past year) are asked to participate. Take the survey online by late November. We hope to share any results that will help the flight instruction community.
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