Great airplane, and great people invoved with her, then and now! Good luck! I would love to see her compete again...
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This plane must fly again! I'm a huge fan of Tsunami and hope that you guys will return her to the air where she belongs! "Race It" That goes without saying! I didnt personally know JR, but I'm sure he would want to continue with the program. You guys must document this rebuild,with not only photos but also a book down the road! I've been waiting for this day ever since 1991. This plane will still be competitive! Go Tsunami!
Great airplane, and great people invoved with her, then and now! Good luck! I would love to see her compete again...
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Jarrod,
I apologize, if my last post came off as hostile. I didn't mean to target you. The point was to address the concerns of the fans. You brought up a legitimate question and I'm glad you did.
As for the rest of you, I took your advice and contacted Skip. He was incredibly helpful and in a nutshell, said he "couldn't wait" to fly her again!
Thanks for all the help guys,
John Bjornstad
Great picture wingman.
Reno or Bust ver.2010
Little JR, Could you give us an overview of the damage and repair that will be nessessary to restore Tsunami? What condition are the wings in? Will Sam T. be building a race engine for you? Anything you could think of that would be intresting would be great. Also where is the rebuild taking place and would it be possible to visit at some point? Thanks and keep up the good work. Pat D.
As you know the airframe was completely destroyed, however many of the machined parts were not damaged and can be used on the new aircraft. We have a huge advantage over the initial construction because most of the old ribbing, spars and formers are in good enough shape to use as patterns. Also we have most of the jigs, plans and knowledge of any modifications done over the years. As for how much of the aircraft needs to be repaired, the easy answer is, all of it.
Currently we are building Tsunami at Kruse Aviation in princeton, which is my Aunt and Uncles shop. (Sharon Sandberg) Anyone is welcome to stop by and take a look, if you want to pick up a wrench that's fine too. Unfortunately Sam Torvik passed years ago. We are still trying to find a good merlin wrench.
Let me see, something interesting...This week was pretty cool for me, we actually started building now instead of the seemingly never ending task of disassembling. I talked to Jack Cox the old editor and chief of EAA Sport aviation as well as the new one Mary Jones. Also Like I said on my last post, I spoke to Skip Holm earlier this week and again today. I haven't seen him since I was little and he was definitely one of my idols growing up, so yeah I thought that was kind of awesome.
One more thing, I have been trying to create a new webpage for Tsunami, I'm not the most tech savvy individual and it's still a work in progress, but you can check it out @ TsunamiAirRacing
Well done on the new web page![]()
Great to here about Tsunami !! Call Rick Shanholtzer at Frontier Aviation on your Merlin needs . I will PM you with his number !![]()