Fly Well: Long play

The FAA doesn’t consider age a factor to ascertain whether one can act as pilot in command of a noncommercial flight, but with increasing age, certain diseases become more prevalent. Poor lifestyle choices are linked to a shorter lifespan—and health-span, the period of time to enjoy quality of life. You want a long flyspan? Make good decisions to maximize your healthy flying years.

Playing a love song for your sweetie builds heartfelt connections, but eating something sweet destroys your heart. Also cut down on fat, salt, and red meat. The famous Italian song Volare, recorded 60 years ago, referred to flying. Want another 60 years of flying? Eat like Italians and other Mediterranean people: olive oil, red wine, fish, and vegetables. Avoid obesity, enjoy meaningful exercise, laugh often, and delight in the company of good people.

I know I sound like a broken record, but understanding personal health risks is important. It takes two to tango; ask your doctor about dance steps to mitigate risk. You also can have an inexpensive genetic screening to look for specific risks to your healthspan.

To stay fit as a fiddle, be well-informed, have regular checkups, and be alert to news items germane to your situation. Additionally, screening tests can find diseases before they cause catastrophic sequelae; find and address problems early. Assessments include blood pressure measurement, colonoscopy, bone density, aortic aneurysm, or carotid artery scans. Checkups keep the needle in the groove.

We have sometimes seen aviators keeping information from their aviation medical examiner, fearful of the consequences. This is never a good idea and at some point, one will have to face the music and deal with the medical and legal consequences. If you know a pilot who you think should not be flying, don’t make a song and dance about it, but talk to the pilot quietly and compassionately. Such pilots may be in denial about the risk they pose to themselves, to others who fly with them, to those on the ground, or to GA by association.

To stay fit as a fiddle, be well-informed, have regular checkups, and be alert to news items germane to your situation. “Miracle cures” claiming to extend quantity and quality of life should not strike a chord; there are no shortcuts to being fit and spry into your later years. However, older pilots should use supplemental oxygen more liberally as lungs and heart age, and remember to wet your whistle and keep hydrated.

Each year, review how physical capabilities may affect your flying. A wise pilot knows when she has made her last landing, a foolish one does not know he has made his last takeoff. A dear friend of mine marches to the beat of his own drum—three miles a day, to be specific—and he is in his 90s. Recognizing his limitations, he now only flies daytime VFR. An elderly lady friend accepts that to some degree she must play second fiddle and always takes along a safety pilot. Should a disqualifying medical condition arise, you may have to change your tune like she did and accept that your days as PIC, but not as an aviator, are over.

Aerobatics pose specific constraints for older pilots; to conduct these maneuvers requires training, judgment, and good balance. But as we age, the three systems we employ for positional awareness deteriorate. Our eyes provide critical clues and diminished long- or short-range vision may impact your ability to monitor the horizon or flight instruments. Age-related changes to the inner ear (or loud rock and roll) and proprioception, the innate sense where our body parts are in space, also decrease the ability to handle loops, rolls, and spins.

Remember FAR 61.53, which effectively demands we self-assess every time we fly. With age, physical wear and tear, and increased use of medication, self-assessment needs to be front and center each time one steps into the cockpit.

If medical problems potentially threaten your flyspan, contact AOPA Pilot Protection Services (www.aopa.org/pps), which can prevent you hitting any wrong notes and ensure you and the FAA are singing from the same song sheet. AOPA also has resources for older folks wanting to fly again (www.aopa.org/rustypilots).

Fine tune your body, hit the right note, and let your flying career be a long player.

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