If you’re fortunate enough to live a long life, you may reach a point when you start to wonder whether it’s time to retire as pilot in command. You may feel that your vision or mental status isn’t up to par, or you may begin to have trouble entering or exiting the airplane. The point at which you put your pilot’s certificate in the shadow box of memories is impossible to predict. Some people quit flying before they turn 70 while others continue flying late into their 90s. You can’t change your genes, which have a great influence on your life expectancy, but you can make lifestyle choices that prolong your ability to stay active and healthy later in life, and may allow you to fly until or even beyond your 85th birthday.
At the age of 102, Evelyn “Mama Bird” Johnson has surpassed the centennial milestone that most people alive today won’t. But what’s even more extraordinary about Johnson is that she was flight instructing and giving flight tests as a designated pilot examiner into her mid-90s. Before she put her logbook on the shelf for good, she accumulated 57,635.4 flight hours — the most recorded by any woman.
