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At 10:34 AM 7/17/02 -0700, Percy Wood wrote: > I feel that the medical requirement for the private pilots license is > because >it is considered the first step on the ladder into the left front seat of an >air liner. We don't want any sickies in the cockpit when our family is in >back, do we? But it is completely worthless when we are just taking ourselves >aloft. I have to disagree, here. I'm concerned that we are pushing a bit too hard on this 'self certification' thing. At very least, I'd like to see an upper age limit (60?). When my grandfather was in his seventies, he began to become spatially disoriented. He went to drive from his house in Ventura to the bank, a distance of a few blocks. He ended up in Oxnard, and took two hours getting home after a small fender-bender. It was then clear that something was wrong. Still, it was like pulling teeth to get his car keys from him. The DMV in Santa Paula is known as 'the' place to go if you're getting up in years and think you might not pass the eye test or the 'once over' the clerk gives you before renewing your license. DMVs do a LOUSY job of weeding out physically incapable drivers. And we want them to do that for pilots? Come on! For every 'great old pilot' I've known, I've known or known of another who really should have grounded himself a year or so before he 'lost his medical.' As a race, we don't seem to be real good at saying 'I'm too old to do this any more.' I don't think there's anything wrong with, once we're of an age where we're subject to things like Altzheimer's, macular degeneration, cataracts, etc., to have an ME give us a look-see every couple of years. Especially when GA is dealing with having to comply with things like TFRs and complex airspaces to ensure its very survival. Sorry to sound age-ist here, but I'd much rather have an ME tell grand-dad that it's time to fold his wings than to have grand-dad's family have to argue with him about whether or not it's time to let someone else fly his airplane. Bad enough they have to do that with the car. Greg ================================================================== TO UNSUBSCRIBE go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm
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