Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles

Yes, I'm trying to use shorts to grow the channel. My Grandson Max is making them. He started with the Supermarine Spiteful, with 5 or 6 of them. I'll put up one roughly every day this week. His next batch will have some improvements. Also, youtube chooses the thumbnail for the Shorts, there is a way to correct that and I'm working on it. I do realize that it's making terrible selections.

2 hours ago | [YT] | 250

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles

P-63 video is coming soon. The video has a sponsor, and that sponsor wants it out for the week of the U.S. Navy's 250th anniversary. I'm having a lot of fun making this one. Even though I already covered the engine there is a lot to talk about with the King Cobra, there is more to the story than the normal, "too late, not as good as the 51 give em to the commies" narrative. I really hope you guys like this video. I also have a WW1 aircraft video coming, also sponsored by a WW1 related product (they really wanted the video to be WW1 related, which worked out well) .

I downloaded "Flying CIrcus" and reloaded IL2, which I am playing in VR. That's allowing me to get more images as actual photos of WW1 planes are pretty rare, especially the one in this next episode. I did get DCS working pretty well in VR, so I'll have to talk about that soon. That said, I'm all in on IL2 until the newer sims come out. I'm just tired of the DCS issues. That said, I also have a how to be the 109 in the Thunderbolt DCS video and one on an easy way to think about starting the engines in WW2 fighters. All that's coming soon.

Greg

3 days ago | [YT] | 767

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles

I'm trying to finish up the dual stage Allison video which will lead into my upcoming P-63 video. Remember, "dual stage" means one supercharger blowing into another for greater efficiency and more power. Dual speed means two drive ratios to allow power through a wide range of altitudes. These are two different things. It's easy to get them confused. I'm just going to keep working until this video is done. Look for it later today.

Greg

1 week ago | [YT] | 731

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles

EcoBoost Ford Mustang update: I helped develop a new tune for Eurocompulsion. Combined with an intake and an intercooler upgrade this combo puts out over 300 wheel horsepower, runs in the high 12s in the quarter mile and costs about 859 bucks. That's a lot of performance for the dollar and best of all it's a super safe reliable combo on pump gasoline. shopeurocompulsion.net/collections/ecoboost-2015-2…

I'll make a short video with the dyno video and time slips from the dragstrip when I have time.

Greg

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 329

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles

DCS graphics settings vs. every other sim

I'm having so much frustration with DCS, I'm serious thinking about switching back to IL2 while I hold out for Combat Pilot to arrive in the future. So I guess this is a bit of a rant, but here goes...

Do you know how many combinations of graphics settings are in DCS? I'm not talking about sound settings, V.R. settings or anything else, just graphics. It's a number somewhere north of 200,000 possible combinations. (NOT A TYPO) That's just crazy. It's impossible to know just what settings to use based on just reading the instructions. Furthermore, youtube and forum posts on the subject are of minimal help because the sim changes all the time. You might find a tutorial setting up a similar computer from a user with similar likes, but if it's a year old, it's close to useless because the sim updates all the time, not to mention updates of video card drivers etc.

It's a running joke in the DCS community that if you switch to VR you will spend more time adjusting the settings to try to get the sim to work well than you will spend actually flying it, and in my experience that's pretty close to the truth. Honesly, I'm sick of it. I love flying in VR but in DCS it's just not worth the hassle at least not with my moderately powerful computer.

For comparison, on the exact same computer Aces of Thunder, which isn't even out yet just plain works. I can be in a battle with over a dozen planes and an entire carrier group of warships and their anti aircraft fire PLUS near an island with lots of ground detail and ground units, trucks etc. and it runs smooth and looks great. In DCS I'm struggling to have more than a couple planes in the air at a time with minimal detail on the ground and at best I get about 40 frames per second and when down low and close to enemy aircraft it drops so low sometimes as to be unusable.

I'm mentioning this because I was trying to make a video about an easy way to understand and get through the start up procedure in all WW2 planes. It's a way of thinking that will allow you to hop into any DCS WW2 plane and start it up without digging through the manuals. I was trying to do it in VR, but it's an exercise in frustration. I might make it by not using VR, but I like flying in VR so much it's really all I want to do.

Aces of Thunder, while a very good entry level sim isn't quite my cup of tea. I may go back to IL2 while waiting for Combat Pilot. Or, I may be able to get DCS to work well enough in VR, I have a couple more ideas to try, but with the 200K plus combinations possible, the odds of the next ones I try solving this are not that great and I'm sick of messing with this. Rant complete. I'll get back to making that dual stage Allison and King Cobra video.

OH and I have the MFG crosswind pedals, they are awesome. In fact I was planning on making a DCS video showing how to beat the K4 in the Thunderbolt to showcase those pedals. Maybe I still will, but I really wanted to fly it in VR for that.

Greg

My PC:
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core processor 3400 MHz
Ram 48 GB
Video Card: NVIDEA GeForce RTX 3060

2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 405

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles

Well, the Italian airplane video is sadly a failure in terms of views. It has about half the amount of views a video on a typical U.S. or German plane would have at the same point in time, and the Italian videos take longer to make. That in no way means I won't be making more, but unless there is a push for them on Patreon, Italian planes won't be a priority.

The P-63 video is coming soon, but first I'll release a short video about its engine. Look for the P-63 video in October with a couple others before that.

Greg

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 908

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles

The recent poll to decide between the Macchi C.202 and the P-63 was darn close, but ultimately the P-63 won out over on Patreon and it's the people there that are largely paying for the party. Don't worry, the Macchi video will come as well, but the King Cobra is coming up first. It's going to be a very interesting video and I have some special info on it from one of the heavy hitters in aerodynamics. I think my normal viewers will like it.

Greg

1 month ago | [YT] | 795

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles

As I prepared this video, which will be up within the next 30 mins, I realized that I had a minor translation error from Italian. One of these is the "Lightning" or Lightning bolt and the other is "Thunder bolt" What is the difference between a lighting and a thunder bolt anyway? Apparently some translation apps translate Saetta to one and not the other. Sorry about that, I hope you enjoy the video. Note, there are two pics there, click the arrow.

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1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 669

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles

I'm about to find out if my viewers are interested in videos on Italian airplanes. During WW2 the Italians had some really cool planes, but they were planes that had close to no effect on the air war. I have a video on one such plane coming out within a day or two. I hope you folks like it, I enjoyed making it and I do like the plane.

On the Ford Mustang front, I have tested the David Vizard Ported turbo. It works and I'll put up a dyno video showing that soon enough.

MFG sent me their Crosswind rudder pedals. I honestly didn't know rudder pedals for a sim could be this good. I'll have to put up a review.

The release of Aces of Thunder is imminent. I have a video introducing this new sim that should be up this week. I'll go over how it works and showcase basic tactics for the A6M3, Fw190 A4, and P-47 D-23RE, all on multiplayer servers. I think this will be the best entry level sim every created and I'm hoping it will bring more young people into WW2 aviation history.

Greg

1 month ago | [YT] | 1,534

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles

The DCS F4U Corsair Review:

As this product is in "early access" I don't think it would be fair to do a video review at this point. I don't think it's ready for prime time and there are three basic problems. The plane under performs, it's unrealistically unstable, especially in yaw, and there isn't enough content to do much with it at this point. cont:

I measured the speeds very carefully giving every benefit of the doubt to the DCS Corsair, reasonable weight minimal drag configuration weather set to standard day, and a slight decent to the test altitude. Here are the numbers, all in TAS MPH:

Sea Level, rated power DCS 300, USN Test 326. Sea Level Military Power DCS 314, USN Test 347
10,000 MSL DCS 311, USN Test 352, 10,000 MSL Military Power DCS 340, USN Test 362
20,000 MSL DCS 349, USN Test 385, 20,000 MSL Military Power DCS 362, USN Test 385 (same as rated at this altitude due to s.c. speeds)

I used TAC View for the TAS, so maybe that's an issue, but I doubt it. I think the DCS Corsair is just under performing in terms of top speed. I didn't measure any other performance data.

The lack of stability in yaw is terrible. Fly at max speed at sea level and even in perfect trim without touching the rudders the plane yaws left and right all the time, and a lot, it's very difficult to aim well and I have never read anything about the Corsair being a terrible gun platform due to stability issues.

As for content there just isn't much yet. No Japanese ships or planes, only a few ground assets.

All that said, it's still fun, but my official stance is you should wait for more content at least.

1 month ago | [YT] | 413