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You're Never Too Old To Fly
According to latest FAA figures, the average student is 33.7 years old, 3 years older than in 1981. Recreational pilots, the next step up for flying novices, average 46.5 years old. Overall, today's average active pilot is more than five years older than just two decades ago: 35.5 years old in 1971 to over 42 in 1994. In addition, 27 percent of all U.S. pilots with current medical certificates are over 50. While Federal Aviation Regulations require airline pilots to retire from their profession at age 60, there is no maximum age limit for the rest of us. Pilots can fly as long as they can pass a Class III flight physical, and many are still going strong well into their 80s, and even 90s. Nearly 63,000 pilots who are 60 and older hold current medical certificates. Their numbers have grown not only in absolute terms, but in their percentage to the overall active pilot population. From 1971 until 1994, the number of older pilots has increased more than 300 percent. Where they represented 2 percent of the total 22 years ago, they now comprise more than 10 percent of all active pilots. This reflects not only the graying of America in general, but the better overall health of our nation. Americans are living longer because they are living smarter and taking better care of themselves. Many are like me. I didn't earn my private ticket until age 60; I got my instrument rating at 67. Why more seasoned citizens don't learn to fly is beyond me. Many of us have more discretionary time and money now. Our kids are grown, we're in good health, and we're looking for new, stimulating challenges. Living Proof Too much has been made of the limitations, risks, and roadblocks, and not enough about the stimulating challenges that learning to fly and being free as a bird offers the more mature segment of today's society. All of the pilots whose introductions follow, have one thing in common. They are living proof that flying is not just for the chronologically young, but for the young in spirit as well. Not only are they actively piloting airplanes in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, none of them earned their pilot certificate before age 50. One was actually more than 70 before becoming a pilot. Dr. Foster Gossard was born in 1915 and is still practicing internal medicine at Glendale, Calif. He started flight training at age 69, and got his private certificate at 70 and an instrument rating at 74. In addition to flights with his wife, Jayne, to interesting western destinations, he flies to El Fuerte, Sinaloa, Mexico, monthly to donate his services to diabetics and heart cases at a clinic. Foster was once a low-handicap golfer who, as an amateur, was invited to several Bob Hope and Bing Crosby invitationals. (He even won one.) He started flying, he says, because it "is an opportunity to acquire a new skill, and besides, there's more to life than playing golf, especially when the legs aren't what they used to be." Although Elaine O'Conner lives in Ramona, Calif., she prefers to base her Piper Archer II at tower-controlled Gillespie Field at El Cajon. A mother of five, she started flying lessons at age 50, with encouragement from her nonflyer husband. Elaine earned her private certificate a year later, and today, after 14 years as a pilot, she's logged 1,200 hours and holds an instrument rating. Elaine often longed to be a pilot but had a problem to overcome - a fear of heights. Although she still can't climb a 6-foot ladder, she's perfectly at ease at 5,000 feet in her Piper. How was she able to shake this acrophobia? "Simple," she says. "I fly a low-wing plane. This gives me a feeling of support - not like those high-winged models where you're looking straight down at nothing but the ground." After nearly dying on an operating table, Liam Dean of Big Bear City, Calif., who lost use of both legs to cancer, asked himself, "So far in this life, what have I done for me?" The retired Marine Corps major, who wanted to fly ever since he was a kid hanging around the old Monrovia Airport, started lessons on his 64th birthday and vowed to have his license before his next birthday. "I'm almost 65 - and if I could stand - I'd kick myself in the butt for delaying flight training all these years," says the wheelchair aviator. Liam and another wheelchair flyer, Mike Smith, owner of Aero Haven at Big Bear Airport, where Liam is learning to fly, gave me a whole new perspective on flying. "Piloting an airplane doesn't require great strength," Mike says, "but it does demand good headwork." Liam is proving the point - you're not too old to learn to fly - not even if you're a paraplegic. Staying Young By Flying These pilots and many more are living proof that flying helps one stay young. They look younger, act younger, and will no doubt outlive many of their contemporaries. What is the wellspring of this fountain of youth? Dr. Jack Rowe, gerontologist and president of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, heads up a research network on aging sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation. Rowe and colleagues in New York have developed a set of predictors for good mental functioning in old age. Their studies found, among other things, that the psychological factor of having a sense of mastery, a feeling of being in control of what happens, helps keep one mentally young. Can anyone argue that piloting an airplane doesn't give one a feeling of mastery, or of being in control? Dr. Deepak Chopra explores human longevity in his bestseller, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind. His underlying theme is that the effects of aging can be delayed - that one's mental health and outlook play a vital role in staying young and active, and living longer. Chopra cites an interesting study which reveals that birds, despite their high heart rate and fast metabolism, do not wear themselves out quickly. Eagles, condors, owls, and parrots can live past age 50 and up to 70. With a few exceptions, an animal's life span is relative to its size - the smaller an animal, the shorter its life span. That's why elephants live 35 times longer than shrews. But in the case of many flying creatures, there is something about flying that gives them durability. Even bats live three to four times longer than mice their size. Is this exceptional longevity the result of the freedom and greater mobility that flying offers? Is it because flying creatures are able to move about in more than just one axis - vertically as well as horizontally - and experience a multidimensional world? Those of us over 60 who fly airplanes definitely feel younger when flying. How better to stay young than by feeling free as a bird? How Old Is Too Old? Obviously, there comes a time when a person really is too old to earn a pilot's certificate, or a driver's license, for that matter. We all eventually reach an age when physical, mental, and cognitive functions are no longer capable of handling the tasks required to safely fly. But for many, this functional age is much older than one might think. Chances are, you know many people who are capable of functioning at a high level of skill, coordination, and mental acuity well into their 80s. And you quite likely know many people in their 30s who can't. They not only would be a menace at the controls of an airplane, but also behind the wheel of an automobile. Experts on gerontology say there are three distinct and separate ways to measure a person's age: Chronological Age - how old you are by the calendar; Biological Age - how old your body is in terms of critical life signs and cellular process; and Psychological Age - how old you feel and how well you perform. Dr. Stanley Mohler, director of aerospace medicine at Wright State University, emphasizes that "acquired disease processes such as heart disease, arthritis, cancer, or leprosy are not a part of normal aging. Many centurions do not have these acquired maladies." So how do you know if you are too old to earn or hold a pilot's certificate? It depends on the certificate. If you want to be an airline transport pilot at age 60, you're kidding yourself. If you want to fly general aviation aircraft, this is definitely a realistic goal, and thousands of pilots in the U.S. have proven it. Safety And The Age Factor Implemented in March 1960, FAA Civil Air Regulation 40-22 says, "No individual who has reached his 60th birthday shall be utilized or serve as a pilot on any aircraft engaged in air carrier operations." In other words, an airline pilot who can pass his Class I physical when he is 59 years and 11 months old is OK. The day he reaches his 60th birthday, however, the regulations deem him unfit to continue his profession. This ruling came under immediate fire and has fueled a festering controversy since. The FAA responded by announcing what was to be a 20-year study by Georgetown Clinical Research Institute on pilot aging. Its goal was to develop a physiological aging rating (PAR). Due to federal budget constraints, the Georgetown unit was closed in 1966, and the functional age index is still just another idea. The FAA's Aeromedical Institute did fund a study in 1991 to correlate pilot age with accident rates. It focused on all aircraft accidents between 1976-1985 and 1987-1988. (Records for 1986 were incomplete.) The accidents were categorized by type of medical held by the pilots involved - Class I for airline pilots and Class II and III for the general aviation pilots. The pilots were further categorized by age: 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, and 55-59. Class II/III ages continued with 60-64 and 65-69. The report (Hilton Systems Technical, 8025-3C(R2), prepared for Civil Aero-medical Institute, FAA) was completed and released in March 1993. Its results are further proof that more mature pilots tend to be safer pilots. The incidence of accidents in all three categories de-creased as age increased. Age 65-69 showed an accident rate slightly higher than 60-64, but that older group's rate was still lower than the under-60 groups. "Judgment is the primary determiner of safe flight in a pilot who is basically healthy," says Wright State's Dr. Mohler. "And judgment is a quality that has been universally noted to improve with age and experience." The British Civil Aviation Authority officially recognized this fact in October 1994 and raised the age limit for its Public Transport Professional Pilots from 60 to 65. Here in the United States, the FAA's age-60 rule is still in effect and locked in controversy. Cognitive Testing While FAA hasn't yet developed a physiological aging rating (PAR) test, it has been focusing on cognitive testing of pilots. Georgetown University School of Medicine designed a test battery - CogScreen - for the FAA Aeromedical Research Division. Taken on a computer, CogScreen aims to measure a pilot's ability to perceive, compute, and act on information. It is designed to rapidly assess deficits or changes in attention, immediate and short-term memory, spatial-perceptual functions, sequencing functions, calculating skills, and executive functions. It attempts to measure neuropsychological functioning, the ability to perform mental tasks necessary to accomplish complicated things - like flying. These functions, and others, decline with advancing age and physical abuse. Researchers are especially concerned with causes of cognitive decline such as illnesses, head injuries, alcohol abuse, and small strokes. They developed profiles from testing more than 600 U.S. airline pilots and more than 225 Russian pilots. Results were broken down and norms established by age group. While the results are being used experimentally in conjunction with other psychological testing of selected pilots, according to Dr. Jerry Hordinski of the FAA, it's not likely that pilots will be subject to routine use of such testing in order to obtain or maintain certification. CogScreen is currently being released to selected medical consultants by the Federal Air Surgeon, who will administer it in special referral cases. It's expected that a pilot, or any other individual wishing to measure his or her cognitive abilities against norms developed from this program, will be able to take the test for a fee. Addressing older pilots in general, Dr. Barton Pakull, the FAA's chief psychiatrist who monitored the studies, says, "It appears that people tend to self-select. Those with superior cognitive abilities select themselves to be pilots, and they retain most of their thinking power into advanced ages." In other words, there's no reason to believe that most older pilots can't still function adequately. They are inclined to understand and feel their own capabilities. In a sense, if you feel you're capable of doing something, you probably are. Senior Seniors While not a late starter, Evelyn Bryan Johnson of Morristown, Tenn., is a living example of how active a pilot can be. An FAA designated pilot examiner, she was giving a checkride just after her 85th birthday. She earned her private certificate at 35 and has amassed more than 53,000 hours since then. Few professional airline pilots chalk up half that many. How did Evelyn manage such an outstanding record? The only way a pilot could - she flies 4-8 hours a day, every day, weather permitting. She's devoting her life to teaching others to fly and has 12-15 students at a time. The National Aeronautic Association awarded her its Elder Statesman Award of Aviation in 1993 for her contributions. To become a UFO - United Flying Octogenarian - a pilot must have a current medical certificate, have successfully completed his or her last flight review, and be older than 80. The UFO's last membership roster lists more than 130 members. Not all flyers over 80 are members, nor are all who have joined when eligible still active pilots. But this flying club is another example that you're really not too old to fly if you still have your health and the desire. And even if you don't start learning to fly until after 50, you'll still have many years to enjoy feeling free as a bird and reaping rich rewards from the money you invested in earning a pilot certificate. This article is drawn from Flying After 50, a book that is being published by Iowa State University Press. It is scheduled for release in September 1995. Dr. Foster Gossard is an internist pushing 80 who still practices medicine three days a week. He earned his private pilot certificate at age 70 and instrument rating at 74. The doctor flies his Cessna Cardinal RG to Sinaloa, Mexico, one weekend each month to donate his services to the poor. Liam Dean of Big Bear City, Calif. is a retired Marine Corp major who lost use of his legs to cancer. At age 64 he decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a pilot. He's not only proving that being over 60 is not too old to start, but also that paraplegics can be pilots with use of special controls. In 1971, pilots older than 60 represented just 2 percent of the total active pilot population. In 23 years, that percentage had grown to more than 10 percent, and the number of pilots over 60 increased more than 300 percent. This reflects not only the graying of our population in general, but the better overall health of our nation, as pilots tend to represent the healthier segment of our population. Elaine O'Conner had raised five children and was 50 years old before starting flying lessons. With encouragement from her nonflying husband, she was able to overcome acrophobia and get her private pilot certificate and an instrument rating. Now, 14 years later, she has some 1,200 hours logged in her Piper Archer II. Good friends Phran Gatcher of Stamford, Conn., left, and Marge Shaffer of Manassas, Va., got their private certificates shortly after turning 50. Both had lifelong dreams to become pilots. Phran enjoys taking her grandchildren for rides, and both she and Marge keep active in the Ninety-Nines. What Veteran Flight Instructors Say About Older Students "The age of a student has very little to do with their ability to learn to fly. You can't make general statements about age; you've got to look at the individual. I've known sharp students in their 80s. What's old to one person is not old to another. Bernie Geier "Older students are more likely to do their homework, and much less likely while solo to indulge in immature actions such as buzzing or trying aerobatics. They may take a little more time to get procedures down pat, and may have slightly fewer motor skills than an 18-year-old, but their experience and maturity normally result in better judgment calls. They are more conservative. "A problem may arise, however, when a young, relatively inexperienced flight instructor is teaching an older, successful, professional student. That student may become impatient and, in some cases, pressure the young instructor into early solos, cross-country solos in marginal weather, or push for a recommendation for an early flight test when they may need more training to be safe. In many cases, I prefer the older students. William Kershner "Neither age nor sex has anything to do with being a good pilot - except for the fact that female pilots and older pilots are more cautious. We have seen more of life." Thomas O'R. Gallagher "Comparing students by age is like comparing the turtle and the hare. Youthful reflexes allow the younger students faster progress in the early stages of their training. Older students, however, gain ground in the long run. Their years of accumulated wisdom allow for more frequent and meaningful development of aviation insight." Rod Machado "The older students are great. I teach people every day that range in age from 15 to 75. It is fun to teach all ages. Sometimes it takes a little longer to get the older ones through the course - but young or old - all can become safe pilots." Evelyn Bryan Johnson "I've had many students from their mid-50s to late 60s. We had to spend a little more time with some repeating things, but that's not bad. One thing older beginners should remember is that their eyes aren't what they used to be. If the more mature pilots plan to do any night flying, they should pay particular attention to cockpit lighting - get the best for both instruments and reading charts." Bruce Landsberg By Charles LeMenager |
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ay "student pilot," and most people think of a youngster chasing a dream. In reality, today's fledgling is likely a middle-aged adult who's not only chasing, but actually fulfilling a lifelong ambition to be a pilot.