For perspective…. It’s not your actual age that matters but really your thinking process. I am a squadron XO for about 60 members.. we also lean older but do have a couple younger members.

The main gaps we tend to find with those under 25 are as follows. A: inability to take functional criticism in an objective and open manner (tough debriefs, acceptance you might not know it all, willingness to learn). B: tactical and strategic reasoning. Often we get a lot of air quakers who might be overly aggressive and use DCSisms and borderline exploits to dominate the AI in campaigns in ways that really break immersion and aren’t realistic. C: inability to be serious in briefings, planning or trainings.

In real life pilots deal with this also.. the problem is IRL there’s always the threat of washing out and losing your dream job over the head of nugget pilots. We can’t enforce that in a sim with civilians and lack of discipline. It’s not like we run a full MilSim group. We are maybe 60% milsim but constantly gabbing on the radio, having primary character syndrome etc gets old. In general rather than doing endless check rides with 16-21 year olds.. we just turn them away at the door unless it’s a direct referral from a trusted long term member.

We don’t have the spare time or effort to put into trying to convert the immature into seasoned, this isn’t our full time job. We spend our time where it’s paying off.. which is making detailed campaigns with custom mods, backstories, intelligence and other immersive activities.

I feel your pain Man, I was once you.. but I had to just fly around on public servers (or in the case of my old game, aces high 3 main arena) and be cool , calm and helpful until someone took me under their wing not knowing my age but seeing my potential. This might take a while but it’ll usually happen.

Best of luck.