Warbird Information Exchange

The Ham Standard (prop and stickers) along with that particular spinner are very accurate for a Canadian built Hurricane. If you notice the photos of Paul Allen's Hurri, it too has the Ham Standard (with stickers I believe) and the funky spinner. This spinner is the best I have seen over the Ham Standard. My least favorite would be the spinner on the HAC example.

Great looking restoration, which I've been waiting on for a very long time, and I hope to make it up to Hooks one weekend to check out the paint work.

I fear to open my mouth here, as I'm sure as soon as I do I will be proven wrong...but while the Hamilton Standard prop is accurate for a Canadian build Hurricane, I doubt the spinner is correct. The vast majority of RCAF Hurricanes few without a spinner. Those that did had a much more conical spinner than the Lone Star bird. Flying Heritage's Hurri and Harry Whereat's Hurri have the spinner I most associate with RCAF aircraft when they did carry spinners. The really bulbous spinner as carried by the Lone Star Hurri has also been used by both RRS restorations (now at Dayton (the spinner was removed when Hawker re-restored the Hurri) and Pima), G-HURR, and I think the FF Hurri. I've seen no historical photos of this spinner used on a RCAF aircraft built in Canada. So where did this spinners come from?

Any clarification will be much appreciated.

Jim

I wonder if the spinner is from a Constellation, like the Malta Avaition Museum used on their Hurricane resto? Looks very similar to me...

http://www.maltaaviationmuseum.com/aircraft.asp

If you type in "Hurricane Z0355" into Google images, you will get a bunch of pics as well.

http://images.google.ca/images?q=Hurric ... rch+Images



cheers

gv

Gentlemen,

Bob Diemert was indirectly involved in the recovery of this aircraft.

I sent an e-mail to Bob Diermert asking him to provide me the RCAF serial number of the Hurricane he lost near Gander, Newfoundland. Diemert currently is currently working in the USA. Hopefully, the next time he visits Carman, Manitoba, he will search through his files and dig out the RCAF serial number of that Hurricane. I will then post in on this web site.

Back in 1972, Diemert learned of the Hurricane crash site. He and his wife traveled by road to Newfoundland to recover the aircraft. He took the airframe apart into wings, tail section and center section for slinging beneath a helicopter for removal from the bushes. He attempted to hire a local helicopter to retrieve the disassembled Hurricane remains. The fellow who owned the helicopter refused to remove anything that was former RCAF unless Diemert had signed Canadian government permission.

So Diemert took a ferry boat to Nova Scotia to hire a helicopter there for retrieving the Hurricane. He successfully rented a helicopter for this purpose and arranged for it to fly to the crash site. Diemert then took the ferry boat back to Newfoundland, but when he arrived at the crash site, the Hurricane was gone?

He learned that after he departed for Nova Scotia, an American arrived at the crash site and then went to the helicopter pilot who originally refused to retrieve the Hurricane for Diemert. The American gave the Canadian helicopter pilot his brand new Ford Thunderbird in payment for services rendered. The pilot apparently was very happy with this arrangement and retrieved the Hurricane. The dismantled airframe was loaded on to a commercial flat-bed trailer and transported to the USA. It was later reported to be with Len Tanner.

Diemert had to cancel the leased helicopter in Nova Scotia and lost his deposit in the process. He showed me photos taken during the attempted recovery. I sent copies to CAF historian Jerry Vernon..

Angered over the loss of the Hurricane, Diemert traded a Fairey Firefly for a Korean war vintage Sikorsky S-51 helicopter in Massachusetts. He built a special trailer for it and planned aircraft recoveries from remote locations in eastern Canada. Diemert became involved with numerous aircraft recovery projects in other countries, and soon lost interest in his Canadian plans.

He advertised the S-51 in Trade-A-Plane. One day an American arrived at Diemert's airfield and bought the helicopter. He fired up the engine, took off and flew in the direction of the US border.

Yours very truly,
Norm Malayney

Gentlemen,

I sent color copies of the photos Bob Diermert took when he disassembled the Hurricane. I loaned these to Scott for posting on Warbirds Registry, but so far nothing has appeared on this web site. I'm not sure if Scott even returned them? I have been loaning out so many photos lately that I lost track of what went where?

Norm Malayney