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Old Age
The first sign of old age is when your medical examiner, minister, instructor, and flight examiner are younger than you are. Memory is the second thing a pilot loses. Can't remember the first. Old age, knowledge and deceit will defeat youth's skill and energy, every time. Over 60, senior rules apply. After age 26 we lose two grams of brain tissue every year. There is a decline in cognitive memory, perception, and learning ability.

The way you learn changes markedly with age. The young tend to think that they are more knowledgeable and capable than they really are. Above age 30 you begin to have some doubts and uncertainty as to just where the truth hides. By age 60 you begin to have and are feeling some physical inadequacies and your memory occasionally takes a vacation. Flying problems tend to bunch up at both ends of the flying spectrum. I learned to fly at age 42 and am past the 37-year mark now. As an instructor I am exempt from the making of mistakes. However, I am constantly doing things that check to see if the student and ATC are paying attention.

New things in flying I learn relatively quickly because I have a foundation to build on. Changes in the FARs and Charts occur just a bit at the time. The actual flying changes little unless it is the amount of anticipation required in a higher performance aircraft. Still, when checking out a retired Air Force Command Pilot the other day I noticed that I was able to interpret any slowness to perform as smoothness in performance. The quickness of youth becomes smoothness with age.

An older student may have done more flying of different types than a younger person and may have accumulated a greater backlog of common misconceptions. Physical dexterity is not an essential in flying but some mental dexterity is required to perform the multiple sequences of required tasks. Much of any student's difficulty in learning a particular skill such as landing is more a factor of the instructor's ability to head off problems than a student learning disability.

The reinforcement of initially acquired learning is just as essential to the old as it is for the young. Considerable unlearning is required by both the young and old. There will be significant differences in what and to what extent the unlearning process requires instructional time and consideration. The older student is more ready to accept the necessity for additional time and practice prior to solo. The time and financial pressure is not likely to be so great on the older student.

Age as a Factor in Flying
The average General Aviation pilot was 39 years of age in 1990.
Pilots over 60 have 2.1 times more accidents than pilots in their 50's.
Pilots over 60 are safer than pilots in their 20's and 30's. The accident rate goes up after 60 perhaps due to subtle age-related deterioration in cognitive function. The older you are the dumber you get! My wife agrees.

Older pilots like to think that what has been lost in ability has been made up in experience. By the age of 60, pilots lose some mental and physical abilities. By the age of 50 everyone has some vision loss known as presbyopia. This is caused by hardening of the lens. As we age we become less efficient in getting and using oxygen and getting rid of carbon dioxide. Hearing by itself does not affect the ability to fly but it does make a difference in the communications area. Like vision, hearing the higher frequencies drops with age. Physically we become victims of some stiffness of the joints and extremities with age. Dehydration is going to have greater effect with age. We are all different in the way we age and the way our aging affects our flying.

The intangibles of flying that accrue with time just cannot be force-fed or taught by programs. Flight time alone cannot be an indicator. 99% of my flight time has been within 100 miles of my home field. I have probably averaged over five landings per hour of my flight time. On the other hand, I have not been in a twin since I passed my checkride over twenty years ago. I only have five hours of taildragger and aerobatic time. Thus my hours and experience are deep in only one specific area and with a very few types of aircraft.

Get me out of California and I am less than a 100-hour pilot. Not all experience is transferable from area to area. California IFR is certainly not Wyoming IFR, Missouri IFR, or New York IFR. Still the skills and experience I have acquired can be modified and transferred to some degree. One type of skill that is applicable in most any flying situation is recognition of my own deficiencies and exercising appropriate caution when in unfamiliar territory. Better than most, I know what I don't know simply by comparing a situation with what I do know at home. I recently had an invitation to fly to Alaska. I turned it down because of my lack of experience. My age at 76, was a confirming factor. I would be useless in any emergency survival situation.

You and your License
If the FAA should wish to revoke your license they can send or deliver a voluntary surrender letter for your signature. You don't need to cooperate, sign nor surrender the license. In case you don't cooperate they can cause an emergency revocation letter to be written in a few hours. This is a demand for the seizure of your license. You do have the right to appeal and have a hearing about this or any FAA action. You will lose. Interestingly, anyone demanding immediate surrender of your license is going to be in trouble when the case goes under review.

You will never have a problem with the FAA until there is an incident or accident. (Never say never.) In most any case the FAA can call upon the careless and reckless operation FAR. It is totally subjective and any defense is subject to an FAA second guess as to the sequence of events in terms of relative importance.

An airman with a history of a disability may be gives a discretionary medical certification through...special issuance provision that determine the pilot can fly without endangering the public. This is known as a waver. The pilot has to demonstrate a practical evaluation and a special medical evaluation that he is able to perform as a pilot.

If a condition is static and non-progressive a SODA or statement of demonstrated ability may be issued. SODAs never expire.

The FAA does not blindly approve of medicines. The individualized reactions possible makes it impossible. Drugs that generally have no apparent adverse effect are often not approved for pilots. Occasional bad side effects are enough to make the FAA withhold approval. Since there are no certain way to determine who and when bad effects the FAA takes the safe position.  Likewise the wise pilot chooses the same safe position by avoiding all kinds of medicines.  

The taking of any drug is always a judgment call. A decision by an aeromedical doctor is going to be more in line with FAA strictures than from any other doctor. Optional means of medical procedure always exist. Finding FAA approved ones may be difficult.

Medical Questions
-- Visits to doctors needs to include treatments, examinations, evaluations and counseling.
--Most medical sources tend to emphasize the positive aspects of drugs. A pilot should be cautious about any treatment or medicine..

Legal Problems
--Anything that has a connection to drugs or alcohol.
--Criminal Convictions
--Anything other than traffic

Resources:
Physician's Desk Reference
Physician's Desk reference for Non-prescription Drubs
Handbook of Nonprescription Drugs
The Essential Guide to Prescription Drugs
Complete Guide to Prescription and Nonprescription Drugs

Medical for CFI/Safety Pilots
FAR 61.3(c) requires current appropriate certificate when you at as PIC or as required crewmember. As a CFI or safety pilot without a medical you must confirm that the PIC has a current and appropriate medical, flight review, required takeoffs and landings, and instrument currency.

The CFI without a medical must not allow the PIC to practice any hood work. While acting as 'safety pilot' the CFI must have a current medical. A CFI without a medical may give in-flight instruction and flight reviews so long as the PIC is fully qualified for the flight involved. A rated pilot who is taking instrument instruction may log PIC time as sole manipulator of the controls.

Condition of the Pilot
The physical condition of the pilot will affect the way decisions are made. As accident findings show, it is the pilot who needs the most preventive instruction about his own physical well-being and mental condition.. The pilot is often trained to know more about other things related to flying than about himself. The physiology and humanness of the pilot make him subject to many failings.

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