[Joe Dell]

Ok. He's in his 88th year.

[CloudHound]

If you have Alzheimer’s I would like to think your annual medical would detect this.

I don’t have an annual medical. I fly on a medical declaration. It could be possible that I start to develop a condition, not acknowledge it and have no reason to see my GP.

The first person to encounter my situation could well be a CRI conducting the 1 hour flight as part of the 24 month rating revalidation.

[Jonzarno]

I beleive the most important factor in flying is attitude.

There’s an instrument for attitude......

No speling misteak indicator thow......

[Marchettiman]

When my father got to 80 he decided to announce his age in increments of half years, when he got to 90 his age went up in quarters, but he still enjoyed gentlemanly aerobatic sequences. And Alzheimer's must be self limiting for pilots; you would simply forget where you left the aeroplane.

The OP sounds to me as though he/she already has an attitude that suggests they are too aged to fly, there are multiple instances of runways being closed by incidents involving young pilots, probably many more than by those of us who have been safely flying for 50 or more years.

[ChampChump]

When I am as old as my aeroplane, I'll consider it.

[Paul_Sengupta]

When I am as old as my aeroplane, I'll consider it.

Dammit, I'm already four years older than mine!

[hatzflyer]

It's not the flying that I'm getting worried about, it's the crashing .

[PeteSpencer]

When I am as old as my aeroplane, I'll consider it.

Dammit, I'm already four years older than mine!

I'm 25 years older than mine so that blows that one out of the water...

Peter

[johnm]

You should worry i’m 42 years older than ours

[Chris Martyr]

Commander’s Age: 79 years. In a Tiger Moth, with a passenger.Rob

Except he wasn't really a passenger was he . He was a pilot being checked out to join a syndicate ! It appeared that he allowed the a/c to get away from him and despite being told by the old boy in command that he was too slow , he still screwed it up .

Whether you have youth on your side or not , the closer you are to the ground , the less time you have to correct any f**k-ups . That's not an age thing . That's a pilot competence thing !

I have known one or two guys who have taken up flying in later years . The unpalatable truth here though is that they don't tend to make great pilots. There are plenty of 'old boys' who are really good pilots ,,,but they are generally the ones who have flown since they were young boys .
Nothing to do with the age you are - it's the age you were when you learnt to fly .

Someone has already mentioned Ken Wallis . Same thing with Steve Wittman . He may well have been 91 when he crashed fatally , but it wasn't his incompetence that caused it !

So , with regard to the thread title : It shouldn't be about the age you give it up .

It's about the age you TAKE it up .

[TopCat]

AAIB Bulletin 8/2018 page 29. DH82A Tiger Moth

Commander’s Age: 79 years. In a Tiger Moth, with a passenger.

When old people should give up flying is a question worth discussing, for sure, but this example is a poor one in this context as it's impossible to tell whether age was a factor in the accident.

The accident report is very short, so in what follows I'm reading between the lines, but I think the points still stand.

First up, doing a check ride when you've flown a total of 1 hour in the last three months, and nothing at all for at least a month sounds like an error of judgement at any age, regardless of experience.

Secondly, it wasn't the old guy that was crashed it - it was the new syndicate member, whose age and experience wasn't reported.

Other than doing the check ride at all, the 79 year old's failure was in not taking over early enough. It may well be that he hasn't got the razor-sharp reactions you'd need to take over at the right time in difficult conditions, but that's an argument for not doing check-outs in challenging conditions (or maybe at all). It says nothing about whether he has the experience and muscle memory to fly himself in those same conditions.

There's a lot unsaid in that report, but it seems more about judgement and complacency to me than a clear cut case of 'old guy that shouldn't be flying any more'. Maybe he shouldn't but this report doesn't show it.

[Rob L]

...Secondly, it wasn't the old guy that was crashed it - it was the new syndicate member, whose age and experience wasn't reported.

Commander...

[gaznav]

There is a great article in the latest issue of GASCo Flight Safety magazine by Prof Mike Bagshaw - page 22. It is supportedby sound analysis of his own experience as an AME, RAF pilot and Test Pilot plus also some statistical analysis. Mike is also the new Chair of GASCo.

If you don’t have sight of the magazine I am sure the GASCo charity would be pleased to take a year’s subscription to their magazine (£16 for a year with the proceeds to this safety charity): https://www.gasco.org.uk/contact/subscribe

Or alternatively they have an App for downloading their magazine https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/gasco-flight-safety/id763433583?mt=8

[TheFarmer]

As someone said above, if the 70+ flyers stopped flying, there’d be a 50% reduction in GA within a decade.

It would end our fraternity.

[tomshep]

Tom Lehrer is thirty two now, having reached an age he prefers to express in Celsius.