At least they put this clause in.
The legislation requires pilots who have reached the age of 60 to have a medical certificate renewed every six months, continue participation in FAA pilot training, and other safe guards.
the likelihood of strokes and heart attacks goes up exponentially.
That’s why there are 2 pilots (or more) up front. As for the physical every six months, that’s required now for pilots over 40 (I think that’s right, could be 45 or so) and airline pilots already continually participate in FAA mandated training. I suspect there are additional requirements in the fine print though and the physical will probably be more stringent.
They have CO-PILOTS! Geez...
“The legislation requires pilots who have reached the age of 60 to have a medical certificate renewed every six months,”
That’s no change at all. ATPs have always had to have a physical every 6 months even if they are in their 30s.
Commercial is every year, and only private is every 2 years.
According to Myth Busters, they can just have a someone on the ground tell a passenger how to switch on the automatic landing system!
They tried having non pilots land commercial airlines on last night's episode, with a NASA flight simulator standing in for he real thing. First they tried it with no guidance. Jamie didn't do too badly, I mean he got all the wreckage and bodies inside the perimeter fence of the airport. Adam was still miles away from the airport when he crashed.
With a flight instructor talking to them over the radio, Jamie landed fine, and Adam's plane was salvageable -- if the fire department was on the ball.
Afterwords the instructor showed them how to switch from the Automatic Pilot to the Automatic Landing System.