Mandatory retirement ages for airline pilots and air traffic controllers are outdated safety theater, not real protection. I've flown with captains in their 50s who are sharper than some 30-year-olds I've met, yet the FAA grounds them at 65 while letting 24-year-old drivers operate 40-ton trucks. We track cognitive decline with annual medical and simulator tests in most countries, so why keep an arbitrary number instead of measuring actual ability? My uncle lost his medical certificate at 63 despite passing every check, and it wrecked him financially. If we're honest, age is a lazy proxy for risk — pilots should be assessed on performance, not the date on their birth certificate.