In July of 2020 we acquired this Defiant Project. It was started by the late Brian Martinez at least as early as 1995, so over 25 years ago. Please check back to this page again as I will put more information up about the project. For Now, here are a few photos of it.
Sign up to get emails of our progress on this project.
Defiant Blog Posts
Huge, Humbling Hurtle
Vacuum Bagging Cowl Parts Note: You wouldn’t know it by subscribing to this blog, but I have actually been continually working on things in the Garaggio. My frustrations over the failures I was experiencing with vacuum bagging and how demotivating that was made it difficult enough to keep working on projects much less write volumes…
5 Years for Betty
November 2nd was the fifth anniversary of Betty’s first flight. So in celebration we had to take Betty flying, of course. As luck would have it, Jon was here on a layover to celebrate. Jon helped me on Betty all the way back to the early days, I think even the first year I was…
Greg’s Visit Recap
I ended up a bit behind on blogging while Greg was here. By the time we were done with the day’s activities and I ensured my slave labor, I mean volunteer help, was well fed, I just didn’t have it in me to write up a post. So in an effort to document what we…
Soaring Break and Greg’s in the Garaggio
On short notice, I took a week off of working on the Defiant project. A friend of mine was coming to Phoenix to do a commercial glider add-on, so I invited myself along on the adventure. It was about a week of really fun flying. I highly recommend it. After my soaring sabbatical, it was…
Lower Cowl Mold, times two
The lower cowl geometry doesn’t lend itself well to making it a single piece mold. The centerline scoop/tunnel/boat tail has geometry that would “capture” the plug, and subsequent parts, in the mold if it was laid up as a single piece. You can still do a single piece mold, but there are some draw backs.…
Learning a New Technique
Vacuum bagging is a skill I have yet to master, as was proven when we attempted bagging the old design upper tool cowl. so why not take it one step further and try to learn vacuum bagging and vacuum resin infusion all at the same time? I like to take big bites of the elephant,…
We have a Cowl Mold; Inspired by Sid
The last few days, when I have been looking at the rear cowl, I have thought that the trailing edge shape reminded me of something, but I couldn’t figure out what. Turns out, it is the character Sid from the cartoon movie, Ice Age. While I am fairly certain this destines Brian’s Defiant to henceforth…
Prepping for Mold Making with Jodi
On Monday, I got to the point in contour sanding and surfacing on the cowl where I was struggling to find flaws that needed to be fixed. Don’t get me wrong, there were still minor flaws, but most of them small enough that I would be liable to go backwards instead of making improvements if…
New Plan for the Aft Cowl
Last week Thursday, before our trip to Kanab, I got the layup on the lower aft cowl done. What an exercise in frustration. I have done quite a few layups in my building history, but this one made me feel like it was the first time I had ever seen epoxy or cloth. The plan…
About to layup Lower Aft TCSN1
The last post we started a right side lower aft engine cowl, say that 5 times fast, and got it to a point where the foam shape mostly replicated the left side. Since then, I spent a bit more time adding, sanding, and shaping foam using my handy templates derived of 3D scanning to improve…
the Garaggio 