Yep, my daughter is only 25, but I was 36 when she hatched.
There are a bunch of us old coots out there, we're sneaky and hide in plain sight.

Beard

Well, I tried that career Beta thing flying as a french corporal. May as well use the same rank I had in the army...

I'm in a Nieuport 17C-1. Now that's a real "bear-bones" cockpit...ha ha... Anyway, I felt like a kid on his first flight.
My two wingies just blasted off and flew away from me in record time... I never saw them again.
I just followed the map weaving between the balloon lines and tried to not get hit with flak.
Eventually, I made it home and landed...
Felt great just to get on the ground in one piece...ha ha..

That is one of the great things about this sim: You go out on a mission and don't get a single kill and still feel like you won because you make it back in one piece!

That's a good one. I train pilots and I have to look at their pilots license and medical certificate and I hate to admit how long it's been that their birth dates are more recent than the date I started flying-by a bunch!!!

Yeah, at the age of 41 I'm quite happy that flight seems are not friendly to the 12 year old crowd.
Be aware, there's a quirk in the beta career where often a 2 seater, flying way too high, and way too fast is present at the beginning of the mission, and your squadron mates will go after it - actual mission be damned. Ignore them, and keep on with your mission. Eventually they'll follow you to the mission objective.

It's a bit of an immersion killer, but I'm sure (hope) this will be fixed soon.

Thanks Gambit21 I'll watch for that.

One question that I do have though...

when we launch from the airdrome at the astounding speed of 65 or 70 kph/mph or knots (no idea on speed)
the AI just fly off ahead and I can not catch them. I have played with the fuel, but that doesn't seem to make
a bit of difference.

In the Nieuport 17C-1 I can not read the gauge. It appears to be a combination RPM and Altitude gauge, but the way it is situated
in the cockpit it is totally unreadable. I can't find anything on the max RPM for the Nieuport 17 either..

Anyway, is this the norm for AI in the career mode?

Might I suggest Joining the 74th Squadron. Good bunch of guys there

I have enjoyed getting to know the older generation in flight sims.

A long time ago I was in a Squad where the youngest was in the mid 40's & me, around 67 or so then,
and we had a real blast. No gripes about anything...We just had a lot of fun.

Then everyone just sort of drifted away with life's assorted problems etc, and I joined another
squad which had a bunch of very young individuals and it was just one beef after another.
I finely dropped out in disgust.

I don't have headsets/boom mic anymore so I can't get on team speak or whatever they would use.

I finely just went with the mp3 player good quality ear pieces and they work much better for me.

My hearing has deteriorated badly these last few years... To many years with those dang turbo prop
engines in my ears + loud noises, rock-en-roll (younger years) etc etc... so I found it very hard to tune
team speak voice sound and the in-game engine noise to a comfortable level.

Right now I am trying to get a handle on flying the Neiuport 17C1 in the Career beta and I am trying to learn enough to keep myself alive by watching and practicing Requiem's training vids.

I can't land the dang thing without bending the lower wing though.
I was following requiem's landing technique to the letter and discovered that the only way I could land was to fly with the aircraft
default settings only. When I put in the rudder correction to where could shoot and hit something, then I could not land well.

apparently either taking the rudder or the porpoise effect out causes me problems...

oh well, Onward and upward is suppose...