Defender Part II

A2C · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:34 pm

No not a sequel, disappointed? Instead a continuation of our previous discussion. How many have seen the video, it's on an internet site? My thought is Mr. Diemert deserves some credit, it looks like his Zero wasn't too bad. Actually a pretty impressive accomplishment in that he got it flying pretty quickly. His windtunnel looked like it was ok, but the airfoils looked a little odd.

We can make other criticisms of Mr. Diemert like the hanger for the Zero being poorly planned, his dealings w/ the gumint officials wasn't so good, the hot tub w/ rug nearby, and his defender looked to me like a badly modified ultralight. What was he thinking?

Shouldn't he have taken some courses in aircraft design and planning? He appears to be alot better at restoring than designing.

I don't know what to make of all this. We have a shortage of mods, so let's discuss this respectfully to Mr. Diemert.

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:41 pm

Geez, I thought this thread was going to be about some guy in Tucson trying to rebuild a Harvard IV :shock:

airnutz · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:53 pm

Oh wonderful A2C..the dust hasn't settled from the "Greenwoodites don't get it" thread and you've decided
now's the time to open up the "Diemert box". Classy move there bro. :roll:

You say your not HarvardIV..but your a dead ringer for him.

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:07 pm

Yep, He did such a good job on the Zero that the CAF determined it to be UNRESTORABLE and sold it to a static museum.

A2C · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:09 pm

Quote:

Yep, He did such a good job on the Zero that the CAF determined it to be UNRESTORABLE and sold it to a static museum.

I heard it was a crack found in the spar, but I've also heard some stories about the Val.

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:15 pm

well, if you don't count the stove bolts in the gear wells, and the hardware from ace hardware, He did a good job, oh and the Val was done by the same guy, so does the quality surprise you.

He also restored a zero that was powered by a B-25 QEC, and had a pair of F-86 drop tanks for fuel tanks.

retroaviation · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:18 pm

I personally saw the galvanized fence posts that were used as axles on the Zero, along with the copper refrigerator lines as hydraulic tubing.

But with all of the things being said about Mr. Deimert that will certainly be said here, you gotta admit that he's a clever fella. He came up with ways to make ol' airplanes fly that nobody else would've ever thought of. I'm not suggesting that all of those ways was correct, but they were certainly ingenious. That, and the fact that he was able to recover many, many airplanes from bizarre places all over the world, makes his aviation career interesting as well.

To me, he's kind of like a "Tallichet Light." :lol:

Gary

A2C · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:27 pm

Retroaviation wrote:

Quote:

I personally saw the galvanized fence posts that were used as axles on the Zero, along with the copper refrigerator lines as hydraulic tubing.

But with all of the things being said about Mr. Deimert that will certainly be said here, you gotta admit that he's a clever fella. He came up with ways to make ol' airplanes fly that nobody else would've ever thought of. I'm not suggesting that all of those ways was correct, but they were certainly ingenious. That, and the fact that he was able to recover many, many airplanes from bizarre places all over the world, makes his aviation career interesting as well.

To me, he's kind of like a "Tallichet Light."

That's what I gathered as well. He used his own standards rather than follow those set in the aviation industry. When I saw the defender video, it appeared to me that the landing gear worked pretty well and the workmanship didn't look bad. So just not up to the correct standards.

The Val has pop rivets instead of the correct type, but pop rivets are being used in some of the homebuilts.

I didn't see the rumored masking tape offsets in the Zero video that people said were in the Val.

The question is how could the Zero look somewhat normal, but the Defender look like a very messed up ultralight? Almost like 2 different standards applied to 2 different aircraft..

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:32 pm

http://www.nfb.ca/film/defender/

retroaviation · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:40 pm

Ya know, I've have a rotten, rotten week or so and it seems to me that taking 50 minutes of my time to watch The Defender (again) might be just what I need to get out of this slump. It's difficult to watch that documentary and not at least crack a smile.

I still say that the National Film Board of Canada should've won an Oscar for Best Documentary with that one!!!

Gary

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:41 pm

12 of us just watched it at work, and people are still laughing!

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:43 pm

A2C,
There are not many 2,000 HP ultralights running around,
There are reasons there are standards, and most of the reasons are written in blood. If you want to deviate from the standards, please let us know the date of the first flight so we can have the hamburger and hotdogs ready to grill over the wreckage............................oh and make sure you have full tanks so it will be a real hot fire..............

retroaviation · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:47 pm

But Matt.......(I'm now paraphrasing Mr. Deimert himself, while having his "discussion" with Canadian CAA fellas...) "I've already proven that the airplane is safe! I proved that in the crash of my last aircraft design. It wasn't the aircraft's fault! Noooooo! It was me...I was testing the "longitudinal stability" of the airplane and I exceeded those limits. It was ME that caused that crash, and that crash proved that I build the safest airplanes in the world!"

:lol:

Gary

A2C · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:59 pm

Quote:

A2C,
There are not many 2,000 HP ultralights running around,
There are reasons there are standards, and most of the reasons are written in blood. If you want to deviate from the standards, please let us know the date of the first flight so we can have the hamburger and hotdogs ready to grill over the wreckage............................oh and make sure you have full tanks so it will be a real hot fire..............

You first

!

Quote:

"I've already proven that the airplane is safe! I proved that in the crash of my last aircraft design. It wasn't the aircraft's fault! Noooooo! It was me...I was testing the "longitudinal stability" of the airplane and I exceeded those limits. It was ME that caused that crash, and that crash proved that I build the safest airplanes in the world!"

He's proven it with a crash, sounds like a roll of the dice.

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 3:37 pm

So the design concept was validated by ambushing a idiot in a cornfield :idea:

and for some reason the RCAF didn't buy into this :shock:

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