Nobody Gets Younger

Medically, a man may be only as old as his arteries. But an airplane pilot has more complicated problems as he begins to get older. He has to worry about his "functional age." Last week Psychologist Ross A. McFarland of Harvard's School of Public Health told the Gerontological Society in Manhattan that a pilot is as old as his vision, or his "motor skill," or his general ability to adjust to the demands of his job. No exact age limit should be set for pilot retirement, McFarland said, but life in the sky certainly does not begin at 40.*

If a time for retirement must be set for figuring pensions, McFarland suggests a sliding period somewhere between 45 and 55. That age group, his study of military, commercial and private pilots shows, includes most of those who had trouble meeting physical requirements.

The most damaging effect of age on a pilot is trouble with his eyes. Only rarely is hearing poor enough to be dangerous. Mental ability in older pilots is nothing to worry about, said McFarland, who is 47: "The extent of the decline in such functions as ability to learn, memory, reasoning and judgment is much less than generally believed." As long as the pilot had a good brain to start with, and his interest in his job continues, no "significant adverse trends in mental performance" should be expected up to 55 or 60. As a "morale builder" for older fliers, he suggested creating the job of "command pilot" on larger planes; command pilots would not have to meet active pilots' strict physical standards.

In military aviation, McFarland found, accidents decline up through the 30-34 age group; then there is a slight increase, and finally a better record after 40. In general, "increasing experience makes the pilot safer"; a 50-year-old pilot who is mentally and physically alert is "much safer" than a younger pilot of less intelligence and poorer coordination. Among transport pilots, lowest records for accidents were among the under-30 group; after 30, the rate went up. Probably, thinks McFarland, the oldsters suffer from overconfidence.

No matter what a man does for a living, getting old may come to him one day as a terrible shock, Manhattan Geriatrist Martin Gumpert, 51, told the gerontologists. "The recognition of aging," Gumpert explained, "is perhaps the most profound shock of our life span--next to dying." He advised patients to develop intellectual curiosity and independence, and "a well-cultivated faculty of giving up the old and assimilating the new." Doctors, Gumpert said, should treat the "shock" of aging as carefully as any other form of shock. A patient who is getting on should be made to understand that he is no longer a stripling; otherwise, the inevitable shock, when it does come, will be greater, perhaps disastrous. The patient, thinks Gumpert, should be told what he can do and cannot do safely--and even (if the doctor can guess) how long he may expect to live. Then the doctor should do his best to make him live long and like it.

*Of 7,237 airlines pilots holding medical certificates from the CAA in 1946, only 9.7% were 40 or over, 3.2% were 45 or over, 1.3% were 50 or over.

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