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"The answer is simple....Where do you draw the line ??? There has to be a number,.." ************* I guess I'm just a country boy. When I hear a statement like the one above, my first response is to ask.....WHY? There has to be a number? If you accept that statement, then by the rules of logic you MUST ALSO accept the following statement: A committee sitting in a room knows more about a pilot's physical ability to fly an airplane than the doctor examining him. Or her. My friends, from my heart, when we start believing that, no matter how many planes are in the air, aviation is dead. And no matter how many of us are still walking around, we are dead also. But sure, there have to be SOME numbers. There has to be a number for vision: 20/40, 20/200,...and so on. There has to be a number for heartbeats: 120/70, 95/65...and so on. BUT THERE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE A NUMBER FOR AGE. We Baby Boomers comprise a 40 million person spike in American generational demographics. America will never produce another generation as large as ours. Many of us are now entering retirement age and ALL OF US ARE OVER 40! Now think about that for a moment, and think about the POWER we have. The FAA must confront the question of qualifying ageing pilots for two reasons: First, the numbers I just quoted. Many of us now have the time, the money, and the what-the-hell attitude required to blow thousands on this wonderful passtime and we're starting to flood into the training stream. Second, the emergence of the Sport Pilot sub-genre of aviation will attract us by droves. The FAA MUST address this, and we MUST make sure they do it in an inclusionary way, not in the exclusionary way that their regulations are now written. Today, the vision underpinning FAA's entire regulatory mechanism is this: "The Reg Is Made; We Know Best; God Help You If You Violate." We MUST change that attitude to this: "These Regs Are Made To Keep You Safe And To Encourage You To Fly." We can do this. Dr. R. Beeman 60 seems to be the one for now. I hope in the future that the FAA > will look at this number and make better informed decision. > > Lloyd > > -----Original Message----- > From: Georgia Trehey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 12:48 PM > To: Dr. R. B.; Albert Barber; James B. Brennan; Desmond & Denise; Hewes, > Mary; Meetze, Hank; Howard P. Reynolds > Cc: ercoupers > Subject: Re: [COUPERS-FLYIN] Class 3 med exam. > > > ----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any > advice in this forum.]---- > > > What really bugs me is that our culture seems to be > zeroed in on what it says on a person's birth > certificate rather than on the person's health, > fitness level, skills, and abilities. > > There are (many) elementary school kids that have > diabetes. An alarming number of elementary, junior > high, and high school kids can't even pass basic > fitness tests. > > On the other hand there are people in their 60s, 70s, > 80s, and even 90's that run marathons, climb > mountains, sky, skydive, do long distance bicycle > trips, surf, etc. > > My point is why not look at the individual person > rather than their birth certificate? While we're at > it, stop forcing airline pilots to retire at 60. OK, > so put them through stringent physical and mental > tests if you must, but let the ones continue who are > up to the job. > > Airline pilots don't suddenly turn into drooling, > feeble morons just because they hit their 60th > birthday. Geez. > > Personally, given the choice, I'd rather have a sharp, > fit, very experienced, 60+ airline captain in charge > when the **** hits the fan in bad weather or whatever, > rather than a guy that just graduated for airline > pilot school and is conviced that he is God's gift to > avaition. > > Spook > > > PS OK folks. I usually get blasted when I make > comments so if you absolutely have to shoot at me, > bring it on. > > > > > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we. > http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail > ========================================================================== == > == > To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm > Search the archives on http://escribe.com/aviation/coupers/ > > > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.13 - Release Date: 4/16/2005 > > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.13 - Release Date: 4/16/2005 ========================================================================== ==== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm Search the archives on http://escribe.com/aviation/coupers/
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