It's been in the news lately that aviation regulatory agencies have either been raising, or at least considering raising, the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots. The whole idea has sparked some debate, and a new study is out questioning the idea of an age limit at all.

The study came up with three major findings, and although younger pilots tested out better overall than their aging counterparts, in some areas the older pilots showed their years of experience -- for example by performing better than the younger ones on traffic-avoidance tasks.

I have to say I agree with the idea of doing away with standardized age requirements and going to some other method of individually assessing a pilot's abilities. I think there are some awesome 60 or 65 year old experienced pilots that are being forced to retire, while the occasional 50 year old who's lost his edge continues logging flight hours.