Skiles and Age 65+

[Roger Roger]

When I retire I am going to grow out what hair I have left into a ponytail and spend every nice day at the frisbee golf course throwing plastic and indulging in activities that are currently forbidden to commercial pilots.

 

[lostplanetairman]

How do you explain that the folks who retire early live significantly longer? Could that be a reverse causation, ie, people who have more things to live for are more likely to retire early, while the ones who live to work are more likely to work until they can’t?

I think the data on that is very old and your hypothesis is flawed.

 

[///AMG]

How do you explain that the folks who retire early live significantly longer? Could that be a reverse causation, ie, people who have more things to live for are more likely to retire early, while the ones who live to work are more likely to work until they can’t?

I have to imagine it is these guys cranking out tons of extra days for years ahead of retirement. I don't know why it is yet, that isn't my "season of life" (as my wife would say), but I do know I have flown with an outsized number of older CA's who work a ton of extra days a month and still do crap like redeyes (hence us being together in the first place). Maybe it is to pay the bills. I tend to think that it is more likely that they have nothing better to be doing, because the isolation of this job has taken away their social network/loved ones/etc. Which in of itself could probably result in early death. I do buy the hypothesis that losing a purpose for getting up each morning probably affects you. My old man is in his mid 80's, and I am pretty sure that the only reason he isn't senile at this point is because he volunteers for all kinds of things.......police, church, EAA chapter, etc. I don't think the answer is to just work until you are dead, but I don't think retiring into a life without purpose is a recipe for survival.

 

[mikecweb]

I need to find a hobby period. Tiny apartment living kind of rules out anything that takes up a lot of space and I’m too out of shape and practice to get into any sports I like

You should get a sailboat. I'll come down and we can go sailing. Picture Jennifer Connelly from Top Gun 2, except fatter and more freckles. But I bring good snacks.

 

[Cruise]

I can’t imagine flying past 55…. I’m 49 and already looking at how to start flying less…

the only thing stopping me is that the 10 years of being a regional airline pilot FO making 45k made it hard to save anything for retirement, after leaving the regionals for a ULCC we were finally able to clear out all of the debt acquired during the regional airline years. after upgrading, the pay raise went strictly to retirement funding…. Maxing out both 401ks and IRAs, maxing out the HSA, and doing a little more taxable investments and taking whatever DC the airline pays.

i fear that I need 15 more years of maxing out the retirement contributions to be at a point where we would feel comfortable retiring from flying. I need to get my side gig running so that my side gig produces income to ramp down flying. The only reason to keep the toes in the airline is so that I can still be covered by the HDHP to keep maxing out the HSA.

do people really want to keep flying past 65? I think that nuts.

Yes, this! Sounds almost exactly like my situation, only I'm a couple years older. Having a midlife career change and a mountain of school debt (finally paid off a few years ago), I'm only now getting to the point where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. That said, I do believe that tunnel is, unfortunately, about 13 more years long unless the side gig starts producing in a big way.

I'd retire tomorrow if I could afford it. Flying is a means to an end and most definitely does not define who I am.

 

[derg]

There was a time when I wanted to do my 25 years and retire, but I'm at almost 26 now and things have been tremendously good at work.

Maybe I'll stop at 60 if I feel I'm no longer effective at disrupting. Maybe 65 if it's still good and brings a sizzle to my skin. But the second it stops being fun, I'm just going to stop showing up as I don't ever want to be that bitter ass in the left seat of an A350 bitching at a regional jumpseater about how bad my life is and how I should have gone to law school instead.

 

[BEEF SUPREME]

I have to imagine it is these guys cranking out tons of extra days for years ahead of retirement. I don't know why it is yet, that isn't my "season of life" (as my wife would say), but I do know I have flown with an outsized number of older CA's who work a ton of extra days a month and still do crap like redeyes (hence us being together in the first place). Maybe it is to pay the bills. I tend to think that it is more likely that they have nothing better to be doing, because the isolation of this job has taken away their social network/loved ones/etc. Which in of itself could probably result in early death. I do buy the hypothesis that losing a purpose for getting up each morning probably affects you. My old man is in his mid 80's, and I am pretty sure that the only reason he isn't senile at this point is because he volunteers for all kinds of things.......police, church, EAA chapter, etc. I don't think the answer is to just work until you are dead, but I don't think retiring into a life without purpose is a recipe for survival.

Damn spot on bro. Things got pretty weird when I was around your seniority. I flew with some extremely strange people.

It got better just before 2 years. Then covid hit...

Also I just flew with 2 PDX captains and while I am guessing they are just average for PDX they are in the top 10 of chill when compared with the SEA base.

 

[MikeD]

There was a time when I wanted to do my 25 years and retire, but I'm at almost 26 now and things have been tremendously good at work.

Maybe I'll stop at 60 if I feel I'm no longer effective at disrupting. Maybe 65 if it's still good and brings a sizzle to my skin. But the second it stops being fun, I'm just going to stop showing up as I don't ever want to be that bitter ass in the left seat of an A350 bitching at a regional jumpseater about how bad my life is and how I should have gone to law school instead.

26 years. And you’re still commuting to work. Ha!

 

[derg]

26 years. And you’re still commuting to work. Ha!

But I live at home. A lot of guys drive to work and wish they lived somewhere else tho!

 

[Skåning]

Also I just flew with 2 PDX captains and while I am guessing they are just average for PDX they are in the top 10 of chill when compared with the SEA base.

PDX represent! I’m kinda tired of flying with Horizon guys tho…

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

Retirement? As an airline pilot, aren’t we supposed to be dead by 67.5? (@derg is that the avg)?

 

[derg]

Retirement? As an airline pilot, aren’t we supposed to be dead by 67.5? (@derg is that the avg)?

The spreadsheet from the late-2000's showed an average age 66.49. That only means that half died before, half died after, the median I have no idea. Are we mathing today?

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

But I live at home. A lot of guys drive to work and wish they lived somewhere else tho!

Word

 

[Sculprit]

PDX represent! I’m kinda tired of flying with Horizon guys tho…

Do OO folk make the cut?

 

[///AMG]

Damn spot on bro. Things got pretty weird when I was around your seniority. I flew with some extremely strange people.

It got better just before 2 years. Then covid hit...

Also I just flew with 2 PDX captains and while I am guessing they are just average for PDX they are in the top 10 of chill when compared with the SEA base.

I'll prob bid for PDX as soon as I can hold some sort of lifestyle there. Wife is sick of having nothing to do here, and I'd rather drive 2 hrs to the airport from a place she has more of a support network (our families in EUG) than 2 hrs from an island that shuts down when it rains. I'm just mainly tired of hearing her bitch about it, more than I am unhappy here. Unfortunately, for now, I'd be about 90% (as a FO) in PDX, while I'm around 75% in SEA and climbing pretty quickly. So it might be a while. Might actually stick in SEA for the QOL and just commute. Gonna be a mainline jet flying that route soon here at least. But I agree. Just did CQ with a really senior PDX CA, and he was awesome. Had flown as an FE on our 727's once upon a time. There was not even a hint of pressure to rush anything the whole 3 days.

 

[BEEF SUPREME]

I'll prob bid for PDX as soon as I can hold some sort of lifestyle there. Wife is sick of having nothing to do here, and I'd rather drive 2 hrs to the airport from a place she has more of a support network (our families in EUG) than 2 hrs from an island that shuts down when it rains. I'm just mainly tired of hearing her bitch about it, more than I am unhappy here. Unfortunately, for now, I'd be about 90% (as a FO) in PDX, while I'm around 75% in SEA and climbing pretty quickly. So it might be a while. Might actually stick in SEA for the QOL and just commute. Gonna be a mainline jet flying that route soon here at least. But I agree. Just did CQ with a really senior PDX CA, and he was awesome. Had flown as an FE on our 727's once upon a time. There was not even a hint of pressure to rush anything the whole 3 days.

If I were you I'd bid PDX reserve. You'd get a positive space DH to start the trips with the weirdos that people are calling in sick for in SEA.

 

[Skåning]

Do OO folk make the cut?

They do if they were based east of SLC at some point

 

[thepotato232]

The spreadsheet from the late-2000's showed an average age 66.49. That only means that half died before, half died after, the median I have no idea. Are we mathing today?

View attachment 70450

I've seen that 66.49 quoted elsewhere absent any supporting information. Just so I'm clear then:

That's the average age of all 2031 confirmed deceased subjects of the survey, including those who unfortunately died well before retirement age ("Age 21 to Age 90"), and exclusive of an undetermined number of respondents who were still alive? Or to put it another way, a deceased 21 year old had statistical weight in that 66.49 figure, but any number of living octogenarians did not?

I don't mean any hostility by asking, that's just some pretty important context.

 

[Sculprit]

They do if they were based east of SLC at some point

Sweet! I made the cut. Denver for a whole month!

 

[derg]

I've seen that 66.49 quoted elsewhere absent any supporting information. Just so I'm clear then:

That's the average age of all 2031 confirmed deceased subjects of the survey, including those who unfortunately died well before retirement age ("Age 21 to Age 90"), and exclusive of an undetermined number of respondents who were still alive? Or to put it another way, a deceased 21 year old had statistical weight in that 66.49 figure, but any number of living octogenarians did not?

I don't mean any hostility by asking, that's just some pretty important context.

It's got names, causes of death, employee numbers, limited private information so I'm not about to get Googled!

I'm unsure of the source, have no idea if it's proprietary but checking some friends/colleagues that met an untimely death, they're in there with the appropriate cause of death.

Je suis not a statistician.