AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - January 2012 - 28

SAFETYPILOT

BY BRUCE LANDSBERG
PRESIDENT, AOPA FOUNDATION

Aging gracefully, flying safely

ging Gracefully, Flying Safely is the name of the new Air Safety Institute online course that looks at how we fly as we age (www.airsafety

Boyington. Fred was only 20-something when he went to war in the Pacific and came back with some amazing tales. Nothing he did afterward, for more than 60 years, could compare with the adrenaline rush of strafing a target, being shot at, and living to tell about it. Fred had a well-loved Mooney 201 when he lived next door to me and flew IFR regularly. With his childhood sweetheart, they visited old friends all over the East Coast. We talked flying regularly, and Fred asked me to institute.org/aging). It’s no secret that the average give him a flight review. He was a bit rusty on the age of pilots has been climbing as inexorably as the rules but his basic flight skills and judgment were AOPA Foundation national debt. While AOPA and other GA groups, very good. Toward the end of the review I gave him President Bruce such as EAA, are working to bring new and younger the obligatory engine-out landing, with an airport Landsberg began pilots into the fold, many of us have been flying for nearby. With a bit of coaching he got through it, his career in the but he knew I had helped, and it bothered him. decades and would like to continue. But the safety U.S. Air Force. statistics are not always kind. He met the private pilot practical test standards, Correlation does not imply causality, which is the which is my criteria for passing a review, but Fred statistician’s way of saying, “It ain’t necessarily age stopped flying IFR shortly afterward. About eight that’s the problem.” Old pilots may fly more than young ’uns months later the Mooney was up for sale. I asked why, and he because of extra time and finances, so a higher level of exposure said that it was time—he knew, inside, that he wasn’t flying to could easily translate to a lower accident rate but more crashes. his own standard. Conversely, they could be flying less, which means the problem Now a not-so-positive story: An elderly gentleman flying a is real but there’s no easy way to get denominator data. fixed-gear single visited AOPA headquarters and had filed an We’ve all observed older drivers who make way too many IFR flight plan to the south, departing around the west side of mistakes and are a hazard to all. Their aeronautical equivalent the Class B airspace (this was before the DC SFRA.) The weather should not be flying. But aging is an intensely personal issue, was decent VFR. One of our staffers, a former air traffic conand your mileage may vary—that’s what makes this discussion troller, happened to be listening on the clearance delivery so difficult and emotional. One person’s 80 is another’s 60, and frequency as the pilot was trying to sort through the completely vice versa. revised clearance that ATC had provided, taking him around the No one likes to be told they’re losing it, yet time marches on east side of the Class B. for most of us who aren’t felled by a catastrophic physiological The synapses just weren’t cooperating, and he couldn’t quite event. Some take the attitude that “I’m twice as good as I never understand what the controllers wanted. He taxied back in, and was,” while others are a bit more realistic on how time affects I asked our staff member to meet him on the ramp to offer some cognitive skills, physical skills, eyesight, and hearing—all essen- assistance. They came inside, briefed, and the pilot went back tial to safe flight. to try again. The second time was no better, as ATC now offered The NTSB conducted a study a few years back and noted that a west side departure. The pilot departed VFR, and we heard no older and highly experienced pilots compensated by drawing more. Here was a case of someone holding on too long—at least on that vast storehouse of knowledge they’ve built up over a for that level of operation. lifetime of surviving the occasional mistake. It’s the equivalent Another friend, Lloyd, now well into his 80s, also flew during of developing resistance to infectious diseases. Some pilots who World War II, in B–17s and B–29s. He had a very successful busilearned to fly late in life and are theoretically mature are, unfor- ness career and flew all manner of high-performance aircraft tunately, old rookies. However, while many older folks may not and twins. His last high flier was a Cirrus SR22. Transitioning learn as quickly as the young, they are cautious and thorough— and keeping up with the glass was a chore—especially since his good aeronautical traits. Did I say this was a variable thing? travels didn’t take him as far from home or as often. He downSo how better to learn about how older pilots think, act, and sized to an LSA. As Lloyd puts it, it keeps him aloft and out of fly successfully than to discuss it with a bunch of older pilots? the house. You can hear their interviews and techniques for coping with English philosopher Francis Bacon said, “I will never be an age-related issues in ASI’s course. old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.” If Here are three old pilot stories: Fred was a Marine combat you’re into the golden years, or perhaps it’s still 15 years off, take pilot flying the F4U Corsair in World War II. That was the air- the Air Safety Institute course (it’s free) for some solid guidance craft in the old TV series Baa, Baa, Black Sheep flown by “Pappy” on flying safely for as long as you can. 28 • JANUARY 2012

AOPA PILOT •

http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/aging http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/aging

AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - January 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - January 2012