Age?

pmanton

pmanton

Final Approach
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Jun 7, 2008
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Indian Hills Airpark Salome, AZ
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N1431A
How many of you are still flying in your 80's?
I'll be 85 in a few weeks. My insurance will kill me. I really have a tough time just airing up my tires. ( I have leak stop tubes but they're not perfect.) I need my wife's help to get it back in the hanger and she's almost 83.
I just renewed my IA via IACRA. However I had to take a Gleim course for the second year due to only 2 annuals)
Bah Humbug! Should I just quit whining and suck it up? Or am I just too old to be near an airplane?
Right now I'm not in the hangar putting parts back on my plane because I'm a wimp, it's too cold!
 
Truthfully, unless your doctor is telling you to stop or you are concerned with worrying friends and family, only you can know when you need to stop.
 
A local recently had to hang it up at 90 because he could no longer get insurance.
 
Insurance is a pain. Annual BasicMed and flight review in each airplane I fly. Yeah, some things are harder than they used to be. As long as I'm safe, I'll keep going. (Just 81, though ;) and I just fly, don't fix)
 
I once took a checkride with a DPE who was in his 90s and still flew corporate on the side single pilot.

I did flight reviews for quite a long time for a gentleman that was in his late 80s. He bought his 1965 Cherokee 180 brand new and was still running the same airplane 57 years later. The man knew every rivet of that airplane. He just finally sold it last year.

Anyhow, age is just a number. If your body and mind are still up to flying, and you want to keep flying, then you should keep flying.
 
Get a powered tug type device to get the airplane in and out. I use one, and I am a good bit younger than you, but not really young. :D
 
I had an uncle who was still running marathons in his 80s. I say fly until you can’t.
 
People age differently. The guy I got my current airplane from hung it up at 92. He was still fine, but felt it was time to let it go. I'm the third owner of a 70 year old airplane because he owned it for so long. The guy who helped me get my flight instructor certificate was 87 or 88 at the time I worked with him. He flew up until his death at 94, although he slowed down on the amount of flying he was doing at the end. At the same time, I know a couple of folks in their mid 60s who are cognitively impaired enough that they shouldn't be flying. I think most of us will fall somewhere in between those extremes.
 
Glad to see people flying after 80 as I’m rapidly approaching that number. Looking forward to join the flying octogenarian group.
 
congratulations. Actuarial reminds us most of us will be dead before then, let alone in a medical position to continue to fly as PIC. You're on an above average run my friend. Cheers!
 
Yeah there is a guy at my gym that is in his 80's. He looks more like late fifties and he is in great health and you might think mentally he is more like thirties. You can either take care of yourself, or not. And genes has to do with it as well.
 
How many hours are you flying a year? If it’s getting below 50, time to give it up in my opinion. I’ve seen a lot of my friends, even though they were healthy and sharp enough, let their hours dip so that they lose their touch/confidence/competence. Even when I was younger, 150 hours great, 100 good, under 75 time to consider finding another hobby.
 
I’d eat some bacon or steak and eggs, go for a flight and finish the day with a good cigar and nice bourbon were I the OP.
 
You definitely have to keep flying, because you are an inspiration for people like me that will soon, hopefully, be following you in your steps.
 
Yesterday was a bad day. :(
After all I should be allowed to feel sorry for myself now and then!
This old fart stuff isn't for sissies. Knee hurts-hip hurts-back hurts-etc. My brain doesn't know how old it is so it's unhappy with the aged body.
It's up to 60 already so out to the hanger to put all the stuff back on my plane. :)
 
Eldorado said:
How many hours are you flying a year? If it’s getting below 50, time to give it up in my opinion. I’ve seen a lot of my friends, even though they were healthy and sharp enough, let their hours dip so that they lose their touch/confidence/competence. Even when I was younger, 150 hours great, 100 good, under 75 time to consider finding another hobby.
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Hours are not a good measure of skills. What are you doing in those hours? I fly my Citabria in short bursts. In 20 minutes, I can get in most of the commercial maneuvers, or at least the ones I like. Lazy (and crazy) 8s, chandelles, steep spirals, accelerated stalls, and a power off 180. If the winds are challenging, I can get 3 -4 full stop taxi backs on my grass strip in the same time. I'm currently giving a taildragger checkout to a friend, getting recurrent in helicopters after about 40 years (in a helicopter I've never flown before), and when WX improves I'll continue working on my glider add-on. I'll probably get around 50 - 60 hours total this year. The only "cross-countries" I fly are to and from helicopter and glider training. One is .6 round trip, the other is 1.4. Or I could get 100 hours a year flying to and from breakfasts and making two landings a week.
 
Our local AME was flying his Bonanza into his nineties. Other people who flew with him said he was fine in the air, but after a couple of taxiing accidents he hung it up. Gave up his car keys a couple of years later and died not long after.
 
Dana said:
Our local AME was flying his Bonanza into his nineties. Other people who flew with him said he was fine in the air, but after a couple of taxiing accidents he hung it up. Gave up his car keys a couple of years later and died not long after.
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See? When you stop flying and driving you die. Don’t give up!
 
Congratulations, ebetancourt!

My unofficial list has 10 Octogenarians on POA. Since I do not have a medical, I do not include myself.

I did fly with another pilot on the 28th of December. Still great fun, and I will try to get out again when weather warms up. If I were not in the DCA airspace, I would start flying again,
 
My wife helps pull it out of the hangar, but not often enough.
 
I moved 12 times before I was 28, not counting 10 different Army barracks. It will take a lot of dynamite to move me again. :eek: 60 plus years here, and happy with the house. :)
 
And eventually it gets to the point that the candles on your birthday cake cause the fire department to show up to put out the forest fire.
 
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