The age factor.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

I'm once again thinking about doing some flight training to give myself something to do to keep from being bored.

I am in perfect condition health wise and hopefully still have most of my marbles thinking wise.

Is there a upper bracket age wise that would be of concern to most pilots looking for some recurrent training?

P.S.

I plan on using a PA11 Cub as the vehicle to teach on.

[Eric Janson]

Don't see why your age would be an issue.

Perhaps that's a good selection tool - anyone that has an issue is probably someone you don't want to be training in the first place!

[Liquid_Charlie]

Great idea chuck - go for it - we need more like you training.

[Colonel]

The instructor training I most enjoyed, were the retired airline pilots.

I know, I know. I am not widely known as a fan of four-bars. But there
didn't used to be such a high percentage of useless knobs. I have a great
deal of respect for the Old Breed, whom have mostly passed on.

Every once in a while, a Unicorn would appear. This would be a retired
airline pilot that not only wanted to continue to fly little airplanes (gasp)
but actually wanted to instruct instead of improving his golf game, which
is the sane choice.

Unfortunately there are HUGE regulatory barriers to entry for these guys,
whom in TC's eyes are no different than a 250TT CPL that learned to fly
last year. Very unfortunate.

One of these guys is online here. I won't out him, except to say that he
has some great kids, and shares my love of motorcycling.

Another one of these Unicorns was a good friend of my old pal Larry Loretto,
whom words cannot quite describe. Anyways this retired airline pilot (not Larry,
whom I flew 421 charter with, a tremendously enjoyable experience) showed
up one day with a really cherry Bonanza that he hand-flew - no auto-pilot -
single-pilot IFR routinely to California and back. Now, that's some street cred.

So he tells he he wants to do his class 4 instructor rating. Bueno. We begin
on the FIG and lesson plans. Part-way through the training, he mentions he
used to hold a Canadian flight instructor rating. In 1972. No shit.

My ears perk up. See, a quirk of the paper is that although TC is quick to
pull your instructor rating after a year or two, it really never totally goes
away, which TC clearly overlooked.

So I casually ask the Unicorn, what class? He says "2".

Fucking awesome. The Unicorn has just struck gold. I begin a paperwork
battle with Quebec Region - actually, they're not bad, for many years I did
my medical there because 4900 Yonge St was itching for a reason to pull it -
and after me threatening to mail the Minister, they sent some poor schmuck
out to the warehouse to dig in dusty boxes, and sure enough, my Unicorn
had an expired class 2 instructor rating. From 1972. TC sends him a new
sticker for his ATPL booklet showing the class 2 instructor rating, expired
1972, which is probably before Arlo ejaculated for the first time.

Fucking awesome. We were no longer doing class 4 training, we were simply
renewing a class 2 instructor rating. Which we did. He did the written test
(remember, we eat this shit with a spoon) and a flight test, and last I heard,
was a Chief Flying Instructor (Canadian CFI) at an FTU near Montreal.

See, these Old Breed Unicorns have so much to teach the youngsters, that
some 250 hr CPL will have no clue about.

Many times in my life, some tiny detail that has been passed onto me by a
senior pilot, has changed my decision making and saved my life. While this
would greatly disappoint TC who make no secret of desiring my immediate
demise, I rather appreciate this life-saving knowledge.

Unlike many new pilots, who seem to be uninterested in whether or not
they crash or die this year.

Remember, no new causes of aviation accidents in 2020. Every accident
will be a depressing replay of previous accidents that young pilots refused
to learn about.

Knowledge and skill. Both are precious, and can be taught by a senior pilot,
even if TC is greatly resistant to the idea.

[Guest]

Insurance is becoming an issue these days for older pilots.
You might want to look into that.
And yes, there are exceptions, but it is changing. I believe the last I saw was 72 before it becomes a case by case, and the 700 operators are seeing a clause written into their blanket coverage on renewal.

As an aside, From your previous posts thought you were busy building an aircraft. Or teaching floats with someone.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Insurance is becoming an issue these days for older pilots.
You might want to look into that.

Thanks, however having worked directly for Lloyds of London underwriters I am quite familiar with the process and am confident I will be insurable.

And yes, there are exceptions, but it is changing. I believe the last I saw was 72 before it becomes a case by case, and the 700 operators are seeing a clause written into their blanket coverage on renewal

.

I have zero interest in 700 operator insurance.

As an aside, From your previous posts thought you were busy building an aircraft. Or teaching floats with someone.

What effect does that have on my giving part time flight advice on my own airplane?

In fact I can just rent it to any licensed pilot and go as a passenger giving suggestions and I don't even need to renew my medical to validate my pilot license.

Do you know something I don't that has changed regarding the law?

[Liquid_Charlie]

Besides Chuck you can throw in sex education for a free bonus -just think someone who can fly a tail dragger and is ready for northern adventures

[Chuck Ellsworth]

it is known as a tail master.

You have to be careful though because the blueberry blonds usually have either T. B. or V.D. so you only hump the ones that cough and don't kiss them.

[Colonel]

Dear Old Dad did airshow low-altitude formation aerobatics in his 80's
so I'm not sure that age by itself is disqualifying.

Every person is different. Plenty of 40 year old pilots will never be able
to fly low-altitude formation aerobatics - I guess they're too old?

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Each of us who do aerobatic or other types of flying that requires above average flying skills know when we are not physically or mentally fit to safely fly to the edges of our ability stay alive by not flying unless we are in top shape.

I retired from airshow flying because I had reached the point that I wanted to quit flying for a living and spend the rest of my life doing things that will bring satisfaction and joy to my life.

Thankfully I could afford to do it and it has now been almost fifteen years since I retired.

If I had it all to do over I would have retired sooner.

Physically my reflexes and decision making ability has not noticeably degraded so if I wanted to go back to airshow flying I would have no problem doing it.

But I have zero interest in doing that.