Please note.
Stab has been discussing the merits of introducing an age limit for entrance to the group. This is in response to a few issue we have had in the past, mainly the one caused by Hartmann/Ben/Galland and all the other names he used.
It is also due to the fact that 95% of JG53 members are aged over 21 and some, tripple that amount. Many members felt that by having pilots of younger ages it restricted the friendly chatter and although swearing etc. is no encouraged within JG53, many members feel uneasy having a laugh with such young pilots.

We have been discussing this issue for almost 2 months now, and we have come to the agreement that we should introduce an age limit for entrance the the group.

This age limit will mean that 15 years old is the absolute minimum for new recruits into JG53, this is reflected on both the group sign up form and on our rules page.
The rules read:

quote:

Please note that we do now operate a minimum age policy. All applicants MUST be aged 15 or over, applications from those below this age cannot be considered. However immaturity will not be tolerated from members of any age.

Although 15 is still much younger than most of us here, Stab felt that 15 was a fair compromise between being an almost fully "open" group and being a one where everyone felt comfortable to enjoy their time here without fear of problems, from possibly insulting younger people to, forbid, having innapporpriate accusations thrown around.

So, what does this mean for our current members who are below 15?

Well, for those established in the group - you are evidently mature enough to fit in, or else you would have already been spoken to regarding your attitude.

For those new recruits to the group, in the interests of fairness to you, I will not dismiss you without a chance, however you will need to do your induction flight as normal, but will also need to fly with at least two members of stab who will judge if you will be a good fit for the group and if you have a mature enough attitude to be able to join in with the group flights.

Stab is unanimous in its decision that this is indeed the best way forward for the group in roder to maintain the great caliber of comraderie we currently have.
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Bump - we are currently updating the website and our forums to be a little tidier!
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Just a heads up: the Russians are starting to push forward and are actively commiting their ace pilots to this theatre of operations!
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Bump

Bump

Just bumping to inform eveyrone that the Russians have begun their counter attack in the Smolensk region.
All pilots are needed to stop the red horde!
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Bump

Great news Gents,
After a fair while of inactivity over the pond our Rote section is once again preparing to stand as an active section operating missions in their own time zone.

It has been a while in the planning what with setup problems, personal issues and many more with all the others who have tried we have now got someone to the stage where he is able to host missions, has MLR installed and knows how it works and has had a basic run through on FMB and is currently training with Joint Ops to be a better CO-OP mission builder.

So everyone, please say a huge thanks to Randall H Klaue for stepping up and taking on this responsibility!

The last thing to get organised is to arrange when the best suitable time/day for the Rote (USA/CAN) section to be airborne is!
Please visit the thread found on the JG53 forums, if you are a Rote Staffel member of JG53 and give Klaue the best times that you are available to fly!
I hope to see a lot of you chaps who have been inactive for a while putting in your input to help you get flights that are in your time zone!

Also this is a great chance for pilots of other sections to have even more oppertunities to fly, so why not pop in and see how things are developing!

We are currently operating over Smolensk and the Russians are putting up some extremely fierce resistance, so much so we are being pushed back by the Russian advances, Smolensk probably has another month before it falls so we will be looking at our next theatre of operations very soon.

If you recieve this and no longer wish ot be a member, please contact me so that I can move you to the inactives and remove you from the mailing list, if you have been inactive for a while and still wish to be a member of the group please get in contact and let us know that you are OK and if possible a rough guess at when you will return. Participating in misions has been great the last few months, so you'll be mroe than welcome to join in on our exciting missions.

So, again, a bit of fantastic news that all of us can celebrate!
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We are currently in the process of updating our Luftkriegsschule training program. In order to enhance the training experience with JG53 we are moving to a "Program" system of training.
All new applicants who join between certain dates will be placed in the same training "Class" and will progress through several weeks of Basic training together, after completion of the course those pilots graduate into the main Staffels.
We are currently putting the finishing touches to both a Basic Flight school and an Advanced Flight school. Both will have full programs to help players of any ability improve so that they can enjoy their time with JG53 to the fullest.

So far we have several new sign ups that will be ready to start in the first class:

Flieger Kadette Willi Kotygoroshko Hidler (Weisse)
Flieger Kadette Gunther Von Marmusmann (Rote)
Flieger Kadette Scheifer Hartmann (Rote)
Flieger Kadette Eberhart Ludwing (Rote)
Flieger Kadette Adolf Keller (Rote)
Flieger Kadette Patrice Strasbourg (Weisse)

So if you wish to join us and be in the first "Class" od the new and improved JG53 Luftkriegsschule take a look at our website and see if we are the Squadron for you!
I hope to see you online with us in the future!
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Bump!
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Smolensk has been all but lost, as such Command has ordered us out of the area and to reinforce our fellow Geschwaders over the Gulf of Finland near the Leningrad Pocket!

All three time Zone Staffels are up and running and missions occur at least 4 times per week as well as additional official training nights. Plus ontop of that most nights you'll find us flying about in co-ops either direct IP or on hyperlobby - so a pretty active bunch who are always on the look out for new recruits from all time zones!
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The start of Leningrad has gone exceedingly well, we have arrived at our new arifield and even had the chance to blow up a few Ruskie tanks on route!
So not come and join a long established dedicated CO-OP squadron with an international membership!
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Bump

Hi all,

I hope that this message finds you all well!
This is just a little update on things over at JG53.

We are currently looking to appoint a new Stellvertreter since Anto has become the Gruppe Technischer Offizier, we have also created a new role: Betriebs Offizier and are actively seeking applications for this position.

We have recently started in a new theatre, Leningrad. In this theatre we have a whole range of missions ahead of us and an extremely large and detailed map to offer us many flying oppertunities.

Turnouts to missions are at a decent level with us operating several Schwarms per mission which has seen the standard of teamwork in missions rise and improve.

Of course we are always looking for new members and are also looking for our inactive membership to renew their interest and jump on. Both the EU and Australian sections are running regular missions - the USA/CAN section is also "standing" although flights have yet to resume after last week's vacation - this is a situation that shoudl hopefully change within the next few days so that our members from the other side of the pond can enjoy all that JG53 has to offer.

So all in all, everything is progressing nicely in the group and we are continuing to expand with the right calibre of recruit and are continuing to enjoy the comraderie of flying together as a close knit unit.

Hope to see you in the air soon!
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Bump
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Greetings Oberstlt Zimmermann

Do you have pilots on the West Coast of North America?

The East Coast start times for most squadrons is too early to get home from work.

I have a monster rig and a cable connection, so I could probably even host.

The vast majority of our USA/CAN based members are East coast, although we do have a few who are on the West coast. Rote mission times are currently being looked at to make sure as many people as possible can attend.

Presently the times are 20:00 EST meet up with missions starting between 20:30 and 21:00 EST, ending around 23:00 EST depending on the mission type and length (scrambles don't last as long as bomber intercepts or shipping strikes)

As I mentioned though, these times are being looked into since our regular rote host has had to become inactive for a few weeks due to extensive building work on his home.

Best thing to do would be to swing apst the forums or to keep updated here, as soon as I have any more info on the Rote times il post the times/days here for you to look through
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Bump!

To let you know Schwarzkommando - Rote is going to trial run flying on Friday evenings at around 21:00 US Est.
Hope this is suitable for your requirements, although that still may be mid after-noon for you if my guess is right?
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Yep, unfortunatley that is 1800 my time which is when I get off work.

1900 PST is probably the earliest I could get onlne.

Well, the meet up time is 21:00 EST time which normally means missions start between 21:20 and 22:00 depending on pre mission training / warm up dogfight map (for combat and checking controls / settings are all OK)

Although this makes it about 20 minutes to an hour later that still doesnt give you a lot of time to get home from work.

I know there is some chat about a Saturday evening / Sunday late afternoon (Est) mission time as well, but I'd need to double check with the American members how close to getting finalised that is. Are you able to do weekends?
If so I can always pass on the info once its been finalised
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