Let Experienced Pilots Fly
NOTAM #10
“EXPERIENCE MATTERS”
Dear Colleagues,
➢ SPENDING BILL PASSAGE: As you are aware, the Budget Reconciliation Bill was passed by Congress. Our Congressional allies will now have the bandwidth to begin the process to re-introduce our “Let Experienced Pilots Fly Act” bill. It is important that we have a bill in process in order to proceed with our campaign.
➢ AARP MEETING: On June 26, 2025, we met with a representative of the AARP (American Association of Retired People). In that meeting, we were very encouraged by the representative’s genuine willingness to assist our effort. Remember that AARP supports “no age”, as they view any arbitrary age as incongruent with their advocacy. We expressed to AARP that our intent is to eliminate the age altogether. With that in mind, they will draft a letter of support for LEPF. A second request to them is to employ their very robust grassroots effort on our behalf. This last piece is a work in progress, and we will see how things develop with their support. If you haven’t signed up with AARP, now would be a very good time to do that. Not only will they be very helpful to us, but it is a good organization to join.
➢ OP/ED: We have an Op-Ed template to share with all of our members once we get the bill re-introduced. We will ask all of you to submit to your local papers in the month of August. This will be concurrent with our C2A (Call to Action) campaign, which includes personal visits to your Senators in their home state offices.
➢ CONGRESSMAN TROY NEHLS LUNCHEON: We have secured a date for the Nehls fundraising event sponsored by our LEPF PAC. The lunch will be held on August 28, 2025. As with the Sen. Blackburn event, seats will be limited. Once we have the final details, we will share them with all of you and begin the RSVP process. Congressman Nehls has been a staunch supporter of ours on the House side, and a longtime advocate of eliminating/raising the age.
➢ BRYAN BEFORD CONFIRMED: On Wednesday, July 9, 2025, the US Senate confirmed Mr. Bedford as the next FAA Administrator. We will be scheduling a meeting with him in our effort to gain a commitment and support to eliminate/raise the age. Remember, Mr. Bedford has called the pilot retirement age “arbitrary”.
➢ LEPF RESOLUTION: The LEPF Board of Directors unanimously approved the following resolution (go to the end of this NOTAM). It serves as a reaffirmation of the new board on our sole focus of eliminating/raising the age. We will be sharing this resolution in an upcoming news release and has been sent to our allies in Congress.
The resolution was the result of the feedback we received from IATA following a March 28, 2025, meeting they had with ICAO, where seemingly ICAO is asking about “data”. The data has been there for all to see, for 17 years (i.e.: 2007-2024 pilots flying over 60). It also places the burden of proof on the entity that is imposing the restriction to our, otherwise “no-expiration” Airline Transport Pilot certificate.
➢ APA and SWAPA MEMBER POLL: We need ALL of our AA and SWA pilots, to reach out to their respective union, and ask their union to “Poll” the pilot group in regard to if they “support eliminating or raising the mandatory pilot retirement age of 65.”
➢ UPCOMING ALPA DUES REFUND: The recently announced plan to refund a portion of your ALPA dues is the perfect opportunity to invest your money with an organization that is working tirelessly on your behalf to eliminate/raise the mandatory retirement age. This is an opportunity to invest in yourself, with money that you had already given to an organization that last year spent millions of your dues dollars to fight our efforts to end age discrimination against you.
Please consider earmarking your dues refund as a contribution to LEPF to help us change a discriminating and arbitrary law against your right to work.
➢ ICAO LETTER: Senator Marsha Blackburn has completed her bi-partisan letter to Secretary Duffy and State Department Secretary Rubio. We continue our work gaining more bi-partisan support and the time has come for you to take a little bit of your valuable time to call your senators asking them to sign on to the Sen. Blackburn letter. A quick internet search of your US senators’ office phones or CLICK HERE and get the contact information.
The message is simple: “I am a constituent of yours and am asking that yousign on to Sen. Blackburn’s letter to DOS and DOT Secretaries asking that theUS take a stronger leadership role at ICAO, rather than allow China to lead inglobal aviation.” (IMPORTANT NOTE: This is NOT the proper call to mention raising the age! Please adhere to the script!)
➢ AME SUPPORT LETTERS: We are still seeking more FAA Flight Surgeons (AME) to add to our list of medical advocates. They can do this by writing a letter to Congress, in support of eliminating/raising the age. WE ARE ASKING that you copy/print out the three (3) pre-addressed letters linked here (Graves/Larsen) (Moran/Duckworth) and (Cruz/Cantwell) for each of you to take to your AME and ask them to either fill in the blanks on these or develop one in his/her own words and return to you. Once you have them, please scan and email them to us at raisethepilotage@gmail.com
➢ Please help us help you! Click on this link to contribute: raisethepilotage.com Whether we agree or not, political contributions are part of the process in conducting business in DC. It is imperative that we have a voice at the table, which your PAC contribution helps with. We ALSO have to keep the day-to-day operations of our organization running which includes top level lobbyists. So, the contribution portal guides you through donating to either the General Fund and/or the Political Action Committee. We thank everyone who is investing in our Mission.
➢ INFO CARDS: We had a great response, and we thank those that have asked for cards. If you are willing to place our LEPF Info Cards (with a QR code to our website) please CLICK HERE and we will send you some to take with you. You can leave a few in any places you think we will gain exposure and potentially recruit new members.
➢ RECONCILIATION PROCESS WITH PARLIAMENTARIAN EXPLAINED: We continue to receive questions regarding why our bill can’t be attached to the recent Budget Reconciliation Bill. Here is an (Article) for your review, explaining the Parliamentarian’s role and the Byrd Rule (also known as “the Byrd bath”) and how any attached language must be part of the existing budget and not “incidental” to the budget. Here is another (Article) for your review.
➢ WELCOME NEW MEMBERS: Our membership continues to grow, and we want to thank our new members for joining us in our effort, as well as their generous contributions. Please help grow our membership further by directing those supporters you fly with to join our cause. At some point, most pilots will want to fly beyond age 65 and you should ask them for some skin in the game to help us achieve our sole goal of Eliminating or Raising the Age.
We thank you for your donations, support, and your continued involvement in fighting this discrimination on our profession, and our right to work.
Experience Matters!
LEPF
PS:
➢ ICAO Ambassador: We continue to advocate to Sen. Blackburn, and others, the urgency of having an ICAO Ambassador in place prior to the September ICAO Assembly in Montreal. Here is a (LINK) to an article explaining the role of the US Ambassador to ICAO.
➢ Future Events: We will host a DC Fly-in once the “Let Experienced Pilots Fly Act” bill is re-introduced. A C2A (Call to Action) campaign will be in effect concurrently to bolster our DC visits. As previously mentioned in our NOTAMs, we continue to plan future events to engage directly with our supporters on the Hill, such as the Sen. Blackburn event.
➢ LEPF RESOLUTION:
Let Experienced Pilots Fly (LEPF) Board of Directors’ Resolution on Mandatory Pilot Retirement Age
WHEREAS, support to eliminate/raise the FAR 121 airline pilot mandatory retirement age is growing, and;
WHEREAS, IATA and ICAO member states have introduced a proposal for consideration to eliminate/raise the pilot retirement age recommendation, namely WP106, in August 2024, and;
WHEREAS, ICAO during a meeting on March 28, 2025, has indicated the desire to collect data for consideration, and;
WHEREAS, the data regarding any correlation between pilot age and aircraft incidents/accidents is available, and;
WHEREAS, since 2007 pilots have operated over the age of 60 without incident/accident attributed to age, and;
WHEREAS, ten member states of ICAO currently operate with pilots over the age of 65, with no attributable age-related cause in any incident/accident, and;
WHEREAS, there have been no incidents/accidents due to pilot age as acausal factor, and;
WHEREAS, pilot age and experience is a causal factor in incident/accident “prevention” and “avoidance”, and;
WHEREAS, the mandatory pilot retirement age is discriminatory and against ICAO policy on discrimination, and;
WHEREAS, the US FAA Administrator* has stated that the mandatory retirement age is an “arbitrary” number,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the LEPF Board of Directors unanimously supports and states that the “burden of proof should be on the entity that restricts the license privileges at a certain age, to explain why they do so”, and;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, The LEPF Board of Directors supports IATA’s (and all member states) whose initiatives advocate elimination/raising the recommended pilot retirement age at ICAO, and that all necessary data is available and there is no legitimate reason to not eliminate/raise the pilot retirement age.
(Passed unanimously7-7-25, *Reaffirmed with update 7-11-2025)