The dream of personal jet aircraft is getting closer. Just a few days ago we saw two new incremental steps in this direction. Below two vids on this subject. Crossing the English channel has been a historical proof of concept for many an aircraft – Im thinking of The Bleriot monoplane crossing – the first one if Im not mistaken. It must have been more than 110 years ago. Now we have the latest flights.
PvP Action
Multiplayer is sometimes rage frustrartion inducing, but it is also fairly addictive. To quantify where Im at, now I can sometimes get a kill or two and then usually get shot down or crash or run out of fuel – occasionally I make it back to base. Usually this is in the course of 1 – 3 hours of play. Contrastingly, the top players – the aces of PvP I guess – they can rock up, play for 55 minutes and achieve 6 kills with zero deaths. So I suck compared to that but also often they fly in squadrons and etc compared to me Im usually flying solo. I reckon I have basically perfected the art of surprise by stalking around at tree-top level, next I might try energy fighting, with a focus on higher altitude flights.
Yak 1b S.127 Vs Bf110 & Stuka. IL-2 Kuban, Prokhorovka
These are some flights I did last night PvP and in a very messy way took down a Bf110, a Stuka and then another Stuka. That last one I did very well, but then I ran out of fuel. lol.
YAK 1 s.69 vs Bf109 (IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Kuban)
Yak v 109 pvp, multiplayer Yes theres a typo in the title its not a 1b its a series 69.
Spitfire IX Vs FW190 (IL-2 BOX Multiplayer PvP)
Two FW190’s shot down in Multiplayer! The first one tried to outclimb and also put the nav lights on – a tactic to get the buddy to shoot the pursuer (me). It didnt work. the Spit climbs well on big wings. Second FW outpaced me to his home airfield but then made the mistake of turning and going head to head instead of landing under the protection of the AAA. I set convergence to the minimum – I think 100m. And the gunsight is at minimum distance – 150 yards and minimum wingspan I think 30 or 40 feet.
Have you heard of this plane? I bet you havent. But you should. It is one of my favorites and its more or less one I have on my short list. The appeal of this plane is clear: It can withstand +9 -6 g! Its a STRONG airframe. There are literally hundreds of planes out there you can buy as a kit and build yourself that look just like this, but none of them has this structural strength, making the Phantom unique. Below are some of my favorite Phantom vids, this one is a ‘Super Phantom’ I believe that means its got a bigger than specified engine. In quick summary the things I like about the Phantom are: Probably kit-build, probably very simple to build, cheaper to build, cheaper to run, three-axis control configuration like a ‘real plane’ – Useful if you have trained on Cessnas and so on because you dont need to learn a new airframe genre type, such as weight shift hanglider trikes etc. Fairly affordable engine options looking at such as Rotax 447 40-50Hp type of 2-strokes. You can mount a Ballistic Recovery Parachute system (BRS). Thats why I like it. If youre looking for a entry level 3-axis plane I reckon this is a strong contender. A bit of explanatory context on these vids, they are the best vids demonstrating the Phantom in existence and thoroughly excellent in my opinion. I actually wrote an article on the Phantom a while back but I couldnt find these particular videos again despite searching for 3 days. lol. But they are here again and I reckon there is a special story here as well about the pilot I believe he was Keith Erwin, a very cool dude in my opinion and very good at aerobatics. From what little I have pieced together loss of control happened at one point (Not in these vids) – I dunno maybe loss stall or even structural issues or what have you, and he fired the BRS, which may have accidentally struck the tail and subsequently failed to deploy as intended. The Dude clearly had some mad skills and big balls of steel. And BRS is a awesome concept this one probably just needed some minor tweaking. So big respect to not only the Phantom aircraft but also big respect to the amazing pilot Kieth Erwin, he was an impressive character in his own right. Phantom X1 on Wikipedia
Battlefield V
Did quite a bit of flying in this session.
P47D vs. Train (IL-2 Bodenplatte)
Note the three bombs dont detonate, the damage they cause is from their momentum only, they were dropped too low to go off.
P47D Thunderbolt Ground Attack (IL-2 Bodenplatte)
On the tank crew map. Thunderbolt is a heavy duty ground attack aircraft.
P47D Thunderbolt Vs. Bf109G-14, K-4 (IL-2 Bodenplatte)
On the Tank Crew map. The Bodenplatte 109’s are faster than the Thunderbolt, even at altitude, so I had the guns at 160m, but would recommend longer for longer shots such as 300m.
If you ever want to watch something long-form and very interesting, I recommend the series of documentaries about the making of James Bond films. Ive watched all the films and these documentaries are a great way to revisit them in a different kind of way. Ive watched most of them and they are very good. Below is the Moonraker one.
Ive heard people express their sincere opinion that Moonraker is total rubbish. To which I was very sincerely shocked. IMO Great soundtrack great cast, great special effects, great themes – great everything! I really do like Moonraker. Always have. Here are some of my personal opinions as to why in my opinion the Bond films like Moonraker were so successful and so brilliant.
When you watch the documentaries it stands out that these were artistic commercial endeavors that were going to succeed or fail based on many factors – success was by no means guaranteed. I think I always took it for granted that those old Bond films were always going to be successful, but they were cinematic effort like any other movie and subject to the same chances of success or failure – unless something quality was in the making of the film that tipped the balance of fate in favour of a successful outcome. In short why do films or any endeavour succeed or fail?
Innovation seems very present in Moonraker for example developing filming techniques to keep running the film and rewinding and filming over again to kind of create several image tracks on the one film roll, which made for some excellent space combat scenes. Again Ive been told how crap the space scenes were, but I totally dont see that – I find them breathtaking. rewinding a piece of film through a cinecamera 96 times to get a result – thats the kind of obsessive passion that results in quality. Set construction staff that dont normally work on weekends deciding to not only work on weekends but get their family members to work too to achieve deadlines. Esprit de Corp comes to mind. Clearly you have a lot of smart people putting in a lot of effort. It seems that the ethos was un-hierarchical when it came to ideas generation – meaning that if the most peripheral staff member had an idea they could express it and if it was good it might be in the film.
Unstructured: In Live and Let Die The greatest speed boat chase you ever saw and nothing much else written on the screenplay for that scene. Lots of risk taking. In every way – choosing not to use expensive special effects companies but to do the special effects themselves for example, is a huge risk but affords economy and control. Stunt men and actors and staff in general taking physical risks – of their own accord, to achieve outcomes – like the waterfall boat dangling helicopter situation in the Moonraker documentary.
The right kind of characters: Roger Moore is really a cool guy who brought a sense of humor to his interpretation on James Bond. I like how Richard Kiel – Jaws was portrayed – for example not entirely a bad sort of bad guy and his romance with the ballerina at the end.
It seems like the team were operating effectively and bringing all the elements together to make a great film. The filming locations were all over the World as well as in Pinewood Studios and a studio in France for example. Looks like location scouting involved unstructured action such as seeing a sign on a crocodile farm saying ‘Tresspassers will be Eaten” and including that area and that sign in one of the movies, or that huge waterfall where they tried flying a hang glider but it got in a downdraft and crashed into the trees, or the boat that was supposed to go over the waterfall but got stuck so one of the team got in a helicopter and was dropped onto the boat to try and dislodge it. One thing stands out – everyone was taking physical risks – and actually in one of the documentaries a stunt man was extremely badly injured when his leg collected a solid post as he traveled past it on the exterior wall of a speeding train.
I get the notion the team were actively involved in and personally engaged in the making of the film, something like the sentiment ‘ok we have to make a awesome film, its a largely blank canvass, how are we going to do this?’ and then do it, with minimal directions. I could be wrong about that but I dont think so, for example, one of the bad guy actors was asked what weapon do you want? and he said well I dont want a gun, how about a claw? and so he got to have a claw – that kind of thing can be very very effective and powerful for franchising team members into the whole shebang and getting them personally emotively invested in the outcome and also bringing in some ideas that dont necessarily originate from one or two brains only. Of course a director needs to have veto over all creative ideas – to say yay or nay, and that is where the legendary Albert R. ‘Cubby’ Broccoli (What a great name!) probably did his best work – in creating the conditions for a project to really pop. These guys were innovating and pioneering the Bond film genre – it hadnt been done before and they were making the films as they went in many ways, and relying on creativity and ingenuity to bring about the right results.
Contrast with modern movies: I reckon there are parallels between old and new Bond and Star Wars movies. I reckon the older were better than the newer. I think the main difference is the newer are following an established genre while introducing new themes. The newer movies are also super well funded and excellently staffed with professionals from the script writing team to the special effects team and so forth. I wonder though if the thing missing from the newer productions is that actual newness ironically of the older films in terms of newness of genre and rawness and creative freedom. Like how Roger Moore basically says in the Live and Let Die documentary that the reason he became James Bond is because he used to gamble in a casino at a table opposite some big spenders, one of whom was Cubby Broccoli! Seems like the informality and improvisation of the older projects was what made them the hugely successful and legendary movies that they are known as to this day.
Spit Vs. 109 (IL-2 Battle of Bodenplatte)
Battle of Bodenplatte was at the end of WW2 in Western Europe. It was a battle of airfields and tactical strikes by fighters. This short vid is looking at the type of air combat flown in Bodenplatte.
FF9K Amazon Merch on display after almost a year’s wearing.
I own several of my own Amazon Merch garments and here they are after around 10 months weekly usage. They pass the stress test with flying colours. The ones in this vid are available at Amazon, but also you can get them from Teespring links below.
My shop: https://teespring.com/stores/froggy-frog-9000
Channel Membership – Access the join button through this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw3m41yCMxNfLBItraJbrUA/join
Froggy Frog 9000 apparel on Amazon (US) https://amzn.to/2MX4Qzz
Frog apparel on Amazon.de (Germany) https://amzn.to/2yq3WRP
Frog apparel on Amazon.co.uk (UK Amazon site) https://amzn.to/2NvGgBe (US site)
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Kangaroos footage of iPhone 8 4K @ 30fps zoomed in
Further testing out the iPhone 8’s video camera. The Kangaroos are around 150m away. I counted at least 21.
P47D Thunderbolt & Spitfire IX Vs FW190A-8 & Bf109G-14 (IL-2 Battle of Bodenplatte)
Bodenplatte is shaping up! Here we have the Tank Crew map – which is the newest and most detailed map yet and only Battle of Bodenplatte aircraft in this vid. This is the first time Ive tried the option to remove gunds from the wings so theres only 4 .50 Cals instead of 8. This lightens the load a few hundred kilograms.
Spitfire IX Vs Bf109G-14 & FW190D-9 (IL-2 Battle of Bodenplatte)
This is getting very close to what the finished product of Bodenplatte must look like, we got all Bodenplatte aircraft Spit 9, 109G-14 & FW190D-9. Also this is on the Tank Crew map, which I reckon is made with the same technology as the new Bodenplatte map.
Yak 1 s.69 Vs Bf109 (IL-2 BOS PVP Multiplayer)
The Yak 1Series 69 is slower at full power and 20% radiator than the Bf109F and G. So what to do? The Yak 1 turns better than the 109 so I managed to see he was turning and cut the corner and wait for the moment to shoot. So form all this action I conclude its worth while chasing a 109 if it is trying to out maneuver but if it is flying away or straight climbing I should disengage, especially if other axis are in the area.
