An aging pilot

So I've reached my 46th year fairly unscathed. I've still never missed a
day of work, ever, and I'm rarely under the weather. In fact, I feel great

I started my flight training at age 70
Since then I have gotten my IFR ticket. bought my little Cessna 172 and fly at
least once week.
Just had a 5 hour flight on Saturday and 5 hour flight on Sunday with a lot of
solid IMC. Get my butt out of bed at 5 each morning and jog at least 90 minutes
..
Sure I wear glasses but I am not overweight.
Hank

"Michael 182" wrote in message news:R30fd.2547$HA.2133@attbi_s01...
Get (or use at the rec center) an elliptical trainer. Aerobic workouts
without banging the knees. Start Pilates. Your back will never bother you
again. Drink plenty of whiskey. If the first two suggestions don't work you
won't care...

Michael
Michael
Best Advice I ever heard for someone who is concerned about getting
old!I'll keep it in mind if I ever start feeling that way...say after
I reach 70 or so?



"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:5D_ed.243219$wV.57086@attbi_s54...

For those of you farther down life's trail than I, what have you done to
maintain your edge? Any tips on staving off old man winter as long as
possible?

And for those of you who have hung it up, what made you do it? When did
you know it was time?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

For those of you farther down life's trail than I, what have you done to
maintain your edge? Any tips on staving off old man winter as long as
possible?

And for those of you who have hung it up, what made you do it? When did you
know it was time?

I'm 67 and developed heart disease 4 years ago (bypass in 2001). FAA
lets me fly as long as I can pass my treadmill test. I've done
aerobic exercise for 30 years (running, biking) and this made it easy
to recover from the surgery (back to work in 5 days) and continue
flying. Got my instrument rating last fall to help handle this
sometimes vile Great Lakes weather.

(warning: religious content follows)

1) Take care of your body as if you're going to live forever.
2) Take care of your soul as if you're going to die tomorrow.

....and I'm a hypocrite on both counts :-/

Go easy on the booze, quit smoking, get off your butt and walk instead of
drive whenever feasable, take the stairs, watch your diet a bit more
carefully. Fly as often as you can, do fun stuff frequently. Enjoy life.

Live long and prosper.

-0-

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:5D_ed.243219$wV.57086@attbi_s54...

[snip]
For those of you farther down life's trail than I, what have you done to
maintain your edge? Any tips on staving off old man winter as long as
possible?

Savor each moment.
We've been given a special gift. We didn't earn it and we don't
deserve it.

For sure, Gene. For sure.

To those of you who interpreted my somewhat melancholy post as meaning
that I'm contemplating hanging it up, banish the thought! I'm
planning on flying for at least another 30 years, and they'll have to
pry the yoke out of my cold, dead fingers.

For me it's only natural to contemplate such things in autumn. The
change of season and diminishing daylight always brings with it
thoughts of the winter ahead, which is depressing indeed. SAD
(Seasonal Affected Disorder) has always been a part of my life -- it
just didn't have a name (or an acronym) until recently! ;-)

Luckily, my flying ace in the hole is my wife, Mary, who, as a woman
pilot, will certainly out-last and probably out-live me. Thus, my
days of PIC may come to an end some day, but my time aloft won't...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

My philosophy is as long as I can get it up, I'm 21 years old! Now that I'm
53, I want to get one other thing up: a plane! I'm half-way there.


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:5D_ed.243219$wV.57086@attbi_s54...
So I've reached my 46th year fairly unscathed. I've still never missed a
day of work, ever, and I'm rarely under the weather. In fact, I feel
great.

Still, now that I'm solidly in middle age, I find that my cholesterol is
too
high, I could stand to lose 15 pounds, and, at my most recent check-up, my
blood pressure was a touch high, for the first time.

In short, the inevitable effect of aging is starting to show itself.

To combat this I've been doing daily weight training with my 14-year old
son
for over 9 months. I've built muscle mass and stamina, and (for the first
time in 20 years) my back isn't on the verge of "going out" all the time.
I've passed the CAP cadet requirement for running a mile (even though, as
a
senior member, it wasn't required), just to show my kid that "the old man"
could still do it. (I darn-near died... ;-)

So, all things considered, I guess I'm doing okay for an old, balding
white
guy.

My biggest concession to age has been my vision, which has always been a
weak point. (It kept me from joining the Air Force.) Although I'm still
corrected to 20/20, I'm going to need bifocals at my next check up for
sure
(boy, that danged sectional is just about impossible to read), and I am
plagued with more and more floaters every year. Low-contrast backgrounds
(like an overcast) make it very difficult for me to spot traffic.

Since life is a terminal condition, it's only natural that whatever is
deteriorating will continue to do so -- although I assume there are
various
things pilots can do to compensate. At some point, however, the lines on
the graph intersect, and you've got to quit flying. Question is, when?

For those of you farther down life's trail than I, what have you done to
maintain your edge? Any tips on staving off old man winter as long as
possible?

And for those of you who have hung it up, what made you do it? When did
you
know it was time?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I'm 48 and just started flying again last month after 15 year lay-off.
I think I'm better at it now than I was then.

My dad just left this morning. He's 76 and flew his Bonanza from
Denver to Batesville, AR on Friday to be here at the college where I
work for our annual fall festival and homecoming. He called a couple
of hours ago to let me know he made it back in one piece.

Jay Honeck wrote:

For those of you farther down life's trail than I, what have you done to
maintain your edge? Any tips on staving off old man winter as long as
possible?

I'll be 56 in a few weeks. I switched from drinking beer to drinking wine to try to
keep the weight down. I had to stop patronizing Dunkin' Doughnuts about 10 years ago.
I stopped eating breakfast when I hit 40; recently I went back to eating breakfast
but no longer eat lunch. As far as diet goes, I would recommend a diet balanced
between meat and veggies like peas and broccoli, avoiding potatoes and white rice.
Since my wife is of Russian heritage, she's big on potatoes and other starches, but
I'm slowly convincing her to cook veggies instead (I gained 25 pounds the year after
we got married).

I had to go to graduated lenses about 10 years ago, but many people don't like them.
I hate them for reading, but fortunately, I can read without glasses. Don't know what
to tell you about floaters. I developed them early from using welding/cutting torches
with no eye protection. They cause a lot of "false alarms" when scanning for traffic,
but I think you'll just get used to them.

On my doctor's advice, I've abstained from caffeine for the last 4 years (except on
very rare occasions when I need to be on top form). This has had the extra benefit of
giving me a bladder endurance nearly as great as my aircraft.

I'm now doing odd jobs to eke out my savings while I continue to look for a software
position and take a few courses. As you've discovered, the regular exercise has been
good for my back, though I'm not doing weights. My cholesterol is still an issue.
There's a med called Zetia that helps, but it's expensive.

Short-term memory will become a problem for you, if it hasn't already. People's names
seem to be the first items you'll have trouble with. Develop a shorthand and start
carrying a note pad in your flight case for dealing with unfamiliar fields. When I'm
dealing with clearance delivery at a controlled field, if I put the transponder code
in as the controller speaks, I'm certain to forget the departure frequency or other
necessary info by the time I'm done. Get used to just writing everything down and
setting things later.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.

Jay,
I was older than you when I first started flying -- I am now 63. Don't
sweat it -- you should be good for many more years, as long as you keep
yourself alert and active.

I added Instrument and Commercial in 1992 and 994, respectively, even though
I have no intent to exercize Commercial priviledges.

Keep up to date on what is going on; try and fly at least 50 hours per year
(I'm a bit shy of that these days); push the boundaries every so often
short, difficult fields, good cross-winds, etc), and above all, don't take
R.A.x too seriously. :-)

Cheers.

So I've reached my 46th year fairly unscathed. I've still never missed a
day of work, ever, and I'm rarely under the weather. In fact, I feel great.

Still, now that I'm solidly in middle age, I find that my cholesterol is too
high, I could stand to lose 15 pounds, and, at my most recent check-up, my
blood pressure was a touch high, for the first time.

In short, the inevitable effect of aging is starting to show itself.

To combat this I've been doing daily weight training with my 14-year old son
for over 9 months. I've built muscle mass and stamina, and (for the first
time in 20 years) my back isn't on the verge of "going out" all the time.
I've passed the CAP cadet requirement for running a mile (even though, as a
senior member, it wasn't required), just to show my kid that "the old man"
could still do it. (I darn-near died... ;-)

So, all things considered, I guess I'm doing okay for an old, balding white
guy.

My biggest concession to age has been my vision, which has always been a
weak point. (It kept me from joining the Air Force.) Although I'm still
corrected to 20/20, I'm going to need bifocals at my next check up for sure
(boy, that danged sectional is just about impossible to read), and I am
plagued with more and more floaters every year. Low-contrast backgrounds
(like an overcast) make it very difficult for me to spot traffic.

Since life is a terminal condition, it's only natural that whatever is
deteriorating will continue to do so -- although I assume there are various
things pilots can do to compensate. At some point, however, the lines on
the graph intersect, and you've got to quit flying. Question is, when?

For those of you farther down life's trail than I, what have you done to
maintain your edge? Any tips on staving off old man winter as long as
possible?

And for those of you who have hung it up, what made you do it? When did you
know it was time?