Warbird Information Exchange

You guys are just too darn fast for me.The mowing the grass scene,wheel coming off the defender on attempted takeoff, carpet in the indoor pool.Having met the guy and had to work with him(menace to aviation)before , you just have no idea and that is all Ill say........ The scarey things I have seen. I break out in a sweat.

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Hang The Expense

Or when Bob tells Chris that this airplane isn't really what they want, they need to start over and Chris says something like, "Well golly gee, we've been working on this one for 10 years!"

This video is an aviation cult classic! I've never seen an authentic copy though, only bootleg.

The Canadian Film Board should really consider a "re-release" of this video...with digital quality. They'd make a killing off of the sales. And could perhaps even fund a sequel! I'd love to see what ever became of the airplane in the closing scene that had the "permanently inflated airbag in the nose so that if it hits the side of a mountain, it will roll up in a ball, but not hurt the pilot."

Gary

Oh, oh.......or how about when he was expaining the first "cataclismic fate" of the first Defender to the CAA guys......."It was I who caused the crash.......I was testing the longitudinal stability of the aircraft and I exceeded it, mind you, it had a narrow window of stability, but it was I that caused it."

Oh, it's killin' me! I've got to go watch it again.

Gary

The first time I watched the Defender was in Midland about 4 years ago while trying to get the Red Nose P-51 back in the air. We had just accomplished hanging the engine, when Randy Wilson walked up and said have you guys every seen the Defender? Well after a short description of the movie we decided to close up shop for the day and follow Randy to libations and that movie.

You would think after working on a Mustang for a week with Eric and the Midland crew I would be able to tell you all sorts of stories related to airplanes but instead my stories are about a swimming pool with wall to wall carpet, or the test they did in the back of the pickup truck with a newly designed wing.

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Philip Beegle
Dixie Wing CAF

Any chance of someone putting this on DVD so we europeans can see it?

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Magister Aviation
It's all in my book

The man of the hour! Bob Diemert!

Is that the P-40 with the T-6 tail on it?

My favourite scene is the same as Gary's, when he's at TC and he tries to get another flight permit.

Haha!

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

Sounds like the Spinal Tap of aviation.

)

Is the video meant to be serious or is it meant to be funny? It sounds great either way!

Well, both I think. Randy Wilson could expand on this further, since he actually spoke with the producers for the film, but it was my understanding that the producers originally went to Carman, Manitoba to do a very serious documentary about a man they heard about (Bob Diemert) who was building an aircraft in his garage (so to speak) that was going to compete for the same military contract as the F-18 Hornet.

However, (and Randy, correct me if I'm wrong here) they noticed right away that this fella had....um.....errr....."less than conventional" ways of doing things. So they (thankfully) stuck it out and filmed his trials and tribulations of the building of not only The Defender, but also of the "World's only flying Japanese Zero" (at the time, of course).

One of the many, many things that cracks me up about the movie is that the producers left in place many of the things that I'm sure they would normally edit out. Things such as wrenches hitting the floor, helmets being thrown on the ground in disgust, and the classic line when his wife walked up to him after an eventful "mishap" on an attempted test flight. She hurried up to him and said, "Are you all right?!?" He replied, "Yes." She then muttered..."G*d D*mmit!!!"

Those producers should've won an Oscar for Best Documentary.

Gary

I asked the crew that was filming us with the Helldiver basically the same question. What I was told is that the Canadian Film Board was charged with making documentaries of "interesting" Canadian citizens. When I asked if The Defender was the most "interesting" they had made, they said that there was one other ahead of it - seems the story of a fellow who was attacked by a bear and built an armored suit to be able to attack the bear back, or something similar.

Just as The Defender has shown up at times on cable, my guess is the guy in the bear suit or whatever the other film's title is, has been seen by someone here - I just haven't run across it.

Anyway, I'd say the film crew did a great job on making and editing The Defender without introducing any possible bias they may have felt about the subject. I'm going to leave it at that, I think. I'm going to do a bit of research and see if there is any way to make a copy of The Defender available legally but it may take a while. Don't hold your breath but it's worth a try.

FYI - the sun came out here in Midland late yesterday and it is sunny again today. Forecast for tomorrow, however, still talks about light snow - we'll see. More later.

Randy

OK, I just checked at http://www.nfb.ca and found that a VHS tape of The Defender is available for purchase there. It also asks if this is for home or institutional use with the latter being higher priced. I'll try and find out what the later license allows and perhaps an online version might be possible. Any Canadian WIXers able to help with this info?

Here is the description listed for The Defender:
"This film is an appealing story about Bob Diemert of Carman, Manitoba, and his dream of building the world's next great fighter plane. His worldwide reputation as a genius at restoring "warbirds" enables him to finance his dream. The Defender is a lively, sometimes wild and funny, tale about a remarkable, modern-day folk hero."

Also, a search for "bear suit" turned up the film Project Grizzly, which is the one I mentioned above.

Randy

I saw the documentary from the bearsuit, they showed it on national geographic here in Belgium... It was very funny at least, the guy lay for four hours in the sun with butter on the suit in a dump waiting for for a bear to show up
Wouldn't be suprised if it was on the net..

Christophe

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'43 Willys MB