Hi John and Lasse I have owned a Mk1 H36 since 1988 (G-MRG in the UK, now VH-VRG in Australia). It originally came with an un-sprung tailwheel which was useless on rough surfaces. The sprung tailwheel became available in about 1989-1990 and is very easy to fit.
The original H36 "suffered" from aileron snatch. This meant that the stick twitched when you went into a thermal. To me this seemed to be a benefit rather than a fault, but the authorities didn't like it and so stiff return springs were fitted on the the H36 Mk II (and on the HK36 as well) these springs are great for building shoulder muscles but the Mk I version is much nicer to fly. My UK engineer, Tim Dews (Airborne Composites) fitted canopy helper springs. I assume they came from Diamond. They do make it easier to open the canopy but they are not really essential. On my Dimona, the springs are hooked into the seat belt fixing behind the seat. This needed to be strengthened with additional glass. A German club were offering a modification to add toe-brakes and a pop-out tail-wheel coupling. I have no contact details for this. The turning circle, although not a problem in Australia, is not very good and means that you need to be careful at quite a few European general-aviation airfields. I have never had any airframe problems (yet!). The first engine lasted 1300 hours and suffered from burnt valves. The present engine (fitted 5 years ago) has a vastly improved baffle system but still needed the valves redoing - guides and seats - after about 300 hours. Hope this information is of some use to you - it is a really nice plane to fly. Michael From: John Mason Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 6:47 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [DOG mailing list] Dimona 1984 Hey Ian! How's it going? If the MkII had the springs on the tail wheel and helper springs on the canopy, are there mods available for the MkI? John Mason ----- Original Message ----- From: Ian Mc Phee To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 9:37 PM Subject: Re: [DOG mailing list] Dimona 1984 Lasse Check serial number and if 36XX then it should have the nice ailerons. (35XX had not so nice drive ailerons) The hk36 II has a different canopy lock with bigger mechanism (also to do with canopy jetison I think) in frame AND springs to counter balance the weight of canopy when you lift it up. All h36II have sprung tail wheel but only some of the original h36 have this feature. Some of these were upgraded to L2400 engines by Koff & co in Germany h38 1984 model will earlier canopy with a pull pin in base of canopy arm which is probably what you have Check the status of prop service like when it is due (next annual after 6th birthday of prop) AN does it have 6mm or 8mm rods - next service will need to go to 8mm rods. Also check when next hose change is due. Check out engine hours to run also Where in Sweden are you? Ian M 2010/1/27 Lasse Schmidt <[email protected]> Hey guys! Found this fantastic resource while doing research on a plane I'm planning to buy, a 1984 Dimona with around 1100 hours. I found some really good stuff when reading through the posts on this list but I guess there is a whole lot more to learn before doing the pre-buy inspection. My previous owning experience of other planes are a Bölkow Junior, Steen Skybolt and a ka-6 glider but this will be my first plastic bird. My question to you guys is if you have any more tips of things to look at that are typically Dimona related or something else that I should be looking at that could be expensive or time consuming to fix. How hard is it to find spare parts if needed in your opinion? Does any of you have more tips of other useful Dimona resources? And the final question that I have been trying to find out: does anyone know of the differences between the H36 and the H36 mkII? Thanks a lot for your help and I hope to be able to help you guys in the future. Cheers Lasse Schmidt, Sweden
