Good question, Wi transplant! Skip, I have a couple big mature ones like this at a rental property of mine. They're tall, but not strong enough where I'd feel comfortable climbing up to where most of the fruit is... would it be feasible to prune it way down in height to make fruit harvest more manageable? If so, do you have to ease your way down, or can you get wild and really hack the top half off and expect it to survive (assuming ends are sealed right away)?
Disclaimer...I am not an "old pear tree" expert...but I have done a fair amount of amateur fruit tree management over the years and did study after the subject, informally, a fair amount back in the day. (Note - about 30 years ago we moved to a place that had an established fruit tree orchard, many varieties of apples, pears, cherries, peaches, you name it, a beautiful set up. But the trees had not been maintained in years...so I dug in, read up and brought those trees back to full productivity over 2-3 years. I had so much fruit I couldn't give it away, etc.)
There were 3 or 4 pear trees there too, so I have had a little experience with them. A couple things that I would say based on all of that...
1. Don't prune while leaves are on the tree. (It is OK to remove small "suckers" at any time, but not branches and limbs.) Late Jan through Feb is your best timeframe.
2. Do not remove more than 30% of the limbs in a given year. In other words, it may take several years to get a tree all the way back to good, that's OK. I would be careful about whacking a large section off of the top in one swipe. So yes, ease your way down IMO.
3. Study how to make your cuts, over the years I have seen many improperly pruned trees, fruit and otherwise. Doing it wrong can greatly enhance the potential for disease or pests to hurt your trees.
4. A rule of thumb when pruning...the tree should be open enough for a bluejay to fly through the middle of the tree and not hit his wingtips on any branches. This according to an old boy who advised me back in the day.
The same old boy also told me, "Do you want to grow leaves or fruit?". He was not afraid to really whack the branches off of a tree...but over time as necessary. A good bearing fruit looks pretty "skeletal" without leaves...that's OK.
