The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has been very supportive of our efforts to overturn the Age 60 Rule. Recently they have added us to their website. The AARP Action Alert site is available for all of us to easily make our voices heard with our Senators and Representatives.
Below is a copy of a letter that I have sent out to family and friends asking for their participation. Please feel free to cut and paste/modify as you like and send it out under your name. If we all just get 10 people to participate (plus yourself of course), it would help tremendously.
How-to-do-it instructions are in the letter below. When you download the pre-printed letter, you can add personal comments as well. Please jump on it today. It really is painless.
Captain Ron Richtsmeier
Vice-Chairman
PAAD
Dear Friends and Relatives,
As all of you know by now, for the last several years I have worked diligently to change the Federal Aviation Administration’s “Age 60 Rule”. This rule has put many pilots who began careers at such airlines as Eastern, Pan Am, Braniff, etc. in financial jeopardy since their fragmented careers have not allowed them to adequately prepare for retirement. This rule forces airline pilots in the USA to retire at the age of 60 - no matter their state of health or how well they do their job. You may or may not be aware that the FAA will reinstate pilots under the age of 60 who are recovered drug addicts, recovered alcoholics, those who have sustained major head injuries, suffered heart attacks, undergone coronary artery bypass surgery, received cardiac pacemaker implantation, had psychiatric disease and other life-threatening maladies. The FAA will allow these pilots under the age of 60 to return to the cockpit after passing one or more diagnostic tests. Without justification, the FAA denies access to these same tests by demonstrably healthy pilots the day they turn 60. This double standard in medical evaluations based on age alone is indefensible. Continuing to deny over-60 pilots the opportunity to demonstrate their health and fitness amounts to nothing more than blatant age discrimination. This is even more frustrating since dozens of countries around the world have done away with the rule. In fact, foreign pilots over the age of 60 carrying American passengers can fly into American airspace - where our own citizen pilots cannot. I assure you that semi-annual physicals, simulator evaluations and aircraft check rides are more than adequate to determine those of any age who should be removed from the cockpit.
In March the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held hearings on (S. 361) to change the mandatory retirement age to 65. Subsequently they voted to change the mandatory retirement age to 63. The next step is to bring it to a vote before the full Senate. A date for that will be set soon. We expect (H.R. 448) again to change the mandatory retirement age to 65, will come before the House Aviation Committee sometime in late September or early October.
After the Senate Committee voted in March to change the rule, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), a major special interest group (who does not represent all airline pilots), launched a massive campaign to generate messages from its 67,000 members to members of congress asking them not to change the rule. They erroneously touted it as “an essential air safety regulation”. The rule IS in fact affecting safety, but in a negative way. The experienced pilot shortage continues to get worse as many years of valuable experience is arbitrarily removed from the cockpit.
Read this from an instructor pilot at United Airlines. “ALPA’s real reason for support of the rule is for economic advantage for its members. ALPA is a formidable foe in this battle because of its huge membership and the millions of dollars it gives to politicians through PAC contributions”. Although there are now thousands of us (and the number is growing every day) in various organizations fighting to change the rule, we needed help to counter the ALPA campaign. And we got it ... from AARP no less!. AARP has posted an “Action Alert” on their web site that makes writing to Senators and Representatives a snap.
In July Captain Paul Emens of the organization Pilots Against Age Discrimination (PAAD) and Dr. Robin Wilkening, M.D., M.P.H., a physician specializing in Occupational Health and Safety, met with Jane Garvey, Administrator of the FAA to discuss and encourage repeal of the age 60 rule. After an hour-long discussion, Ms. Garvey brought the meeting to a close by saying that, compared to other problems being faced by the FAA, the Age 60 Rule was a “back burner” issue, one that will require Congressional mandate to force repeal.
So, guess what. Yep, you guessed it. I’m going to ask you to jump in and write a letter to your Senators and Representatives. With the time for hearings on the House bill (and hopefully the Senate bill) right around the corner it’s important to get the word out to congress that there is support for CHANGING the rule and to counteract ALPA’s letter writing. Try the AARP Action Alert site. You do not have to be a member of AARP to use this service. But please take a few extra minutes to print out letters instead of just sending e-mail. The legislative aides we’ve talked to say that their computers are so inundated with e-mail that they don’t get much attention, if any. The site will automatically fill in correct addresses for you. All you have to do is print out three letters, address the envelopes by hand and mail them off. Here’s how:
2. Click - Legislative Issues (left side of page).
3. Tab and click Legislative Action Center (right side of page).
4. Action Alert will come on screen with 3 issues. We are #1!
The message is already written. All we have to do is print it out, sign it and send. You can amplify it if you want.
You do not have to be an AARP member to do this. The present rule is simply wrong. It is also indefensible in light of the present EXPERIENCED pilot shortage, which is rapidly reducing the experience level in our cockpits.
I would appreciate it very much if you would forward this letter or send a link to the AARP site and your own personal comments to everyone on your e-mail list encouraging them to write also.
Thanks again for your help,
Ron Richtsmeier
P.S. If you would like to learn more details of the war against the Age 60 Rule, here are some web sites that will provide a volume of information
2. http://www.http:/users.erols.com/budreed
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