Viewing page 44 of 127

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

- 3 -

periods of depression when the need for income is greatest. Pilots and their employers must act together in order to provide an insurance basis which will afford adequate protection. There can be no substitute for a general over-all retirement system, jointly supported, providing sure income for pilots fitted to their special needs.
There has been worked out for the railroad industry a retirement system adapted to the special needs of railroad workers. That system has worked well. It is not suitable, as it stands, to the needs of pilots; but many of its principles, with appropriate modifications, can be applied to pilots.
A pilots' retirement system has been worked out by extending the principles of the railroad retirement system to meet the special needs of pilots. This has been done by rephrasing the disability provisions of the Railroad Retirement Act in language which fits the conditions of the air transport industry, taking into account the fact that the physical condition of air line pilots is now a matter of official concern of the Civil Aeronautics Board and the Civil Aeronautics Administration; by lifting the compensation limits applicable to railroads to limits suitable for the salary level of pilots; and by changing tax rates to those which are needed to provide benefits on scales appropriate to pilots.
With respect to administration, procedures and conceptions, the Pilot's Retirement System has been modeled after  the railroad system with substantially no change.
The following set of questions and answers has been prepared to convey an idea of the major features of the Pilot's Retirement System.  It is not exhaustive, but it covers at lease one aspect of the essentials of the system.