Hello:
Please take a moment to send an email to your Senators and Representative to ask them to support legislation to raise the airline pilot retirement age.
This outreach is incredibly important. Members of Congress generally don’t support legislation unless they hear from their constituents.
Ray Bucheger, Partner – FBB Federal Relations, Washington, DC
QUICK AND EASY INSTRUCTIONS
To send an email, follow these four simple steps, which can be completed in minutes:
- Determine your Representative by inputting your zip code here.
- Use the attached chart, which links to the contact page for your Senators and Representative.
- Senators are organized by State. Representatives are listed in alphabetical order by last name.
- Send an email to both of your Senators and to your Representative.
- cc your email to social@raisethepilotage.com – so we can track correspondences and mention your letter to the members.
DRAFT EMAIL TO SEND TO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
Here is a draft email for pilots to consider sending. Please consider adding your own personal touch to the email. If you are not an aviation professional, we’d appreciate you sending a customized message to Congress, as well.
I am writing to ask you to support legislation to increase the airline pilot retirement age. Increasing the airline pilot retirement age will allow airlines to avoid thousands of new openings over the next several years, it will keep decades of experience in the cockpit, and it will address the pilot shortage that is currently wreaking havoc on your constituents.
The pilot shortage is real, and it is a crisis. Every meltdown we have seen over the past year – whether caused by weather or something else – has been made worse by the pilot shortage. Pilots time out waiting for planes or waiting for weather to clear, and there are not enough pilots to step in when this happens. Not only that, but the pilot shortage has also resulted in air service cuts, especially to rural communities.
The pilots that are being hired have very little experience. Because of the pilot shortage, airlines are rushing new pilots into the cockpit before many of them are ready. It will be years before the new pilots who are being hired today attain the level of experience and knowledge of the pilots being forced to retire. All of this puts the flying public at risk of a serious accident.
Congress can increase the airline pilot retirement age without jeopardizing safety. As a pilot, I undergo frequent and rigorous medical and performance tests. I receive a first-class medical examination every 6 months and EKG every 12 months. I also undergo performance tests every 9 months and regular flight test performance evaluations. The fact that I am forced to retire from the airlines one day but can move over to a Part 135 operator the next day because there is not a mandatory retirement age for 135 operators just doesn’t make sense. Part 135 pilots fly in the same airspace, and in some cases, fly in the same planes as airline pilots.
Thank you for considering my views. I hope you will support legislation to increase the airline pilot retirement age.
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