JayG wrote on Jun 6^th, 2011 at 2:56pm:

Thanks Lou for sharing, for a lot of us it's as close as we will ever get to the real FL350, 500kts, and a load of passengers!

Please don't insult the rw Concorde Captains around.  ;D

But more seriously, I think you hit the nail on the head. That "easy" last flight of a guy doing the job for 40 years won't have been easy at all.
Maybe Lou's wife can tell some stories there since she had to cope with a now former Captain, full time.
Especially the fellows with some responsibility in the (former) job have to face some more "obstacles" on that easy way into a confident retirement.

Not speaking about a complete loss of fun there, but at least some andropause of some kind. Hobbies help a lot I think, and being the chief test pilot at CS now is a nice one indeed.  :) "Lourification" is a quality sign.

I knew some former DC-10 Captain years ago and he enjoyed flying quite some years after retirement. He did all sorts of GA stuff then.