AMA Plans Service Showcase
TSUNAMI was the first and only original homebuilt racer at the Reno Air Races to qualify for the Unlimited class Gold heat race. With its sleek airframe, it was known as one of the fastest piston propeller airplanes, and was built from parts of several different aircraft: the wheels and brakes from a Learjet; the propeller blades from a T-28; the main gear from a Piper Aerostar; the tail gear from a P-51 Mustang; and the tail wheel from a Grumman S-2.
Unfortunately, Tsunami crashed in September 1991, killing pilot John Sandberg. The hopes to rebuild her have been ongoing since, with donations and funding through the "Rebuild Tsunami" website (www.rebuildtsunami.org), as well as appearances at events such as EAA AirVenture.
Windy Urtnowski wanted to pay tribute to the racer and, with the help of Pat Johnston and Gerald Schamp, designed plans for this CL Precision Aerobatics performer, calling it "A Tribute to John Sandberg's Dream."
With a wingspan and length of 27 feet, the model was built for use with two wings: one using Bob Hunt's "lost-foam" method, the other using the "rod" method. Both types of lightweight wings worked fine.
Construction was built-up, with ribs cut from a stack of 1/16 blanks, tips from hollowed blocks, flaps from 1/4 C-grain sheets, and foam core tail surfaces. Windy used Sig dope, DuPont thinner, and medium silkspan to finish the project with the distinctive paint scheme for which Tsunami was known.
A SuperTiger .60 was found to be a successful engine; the propeller, a 14 x 5 Rev-Up, was cut down to 12 3/4 inches in diameter.
The Tsunami model, according to Windy, was one of only two airplanes in the front row at the 1994 Nats. It won every local contest entered that year, and was awarded several local meet Concours awards by the toughest judges of all—the fliers.
Tsunami was one of two construction articles featured in the October 1996 MA, as Plans Service listing 820. (Editor's note: the plan was incorrectly listed in the October 1996 issue as 818; however, it is correctly listed online as 820.) It is available for $19 plus shipping and handling. See page 175 or go to www.modelaircraft.org/plans.aspx for ordering information. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
