RENO '98
"Thunder Mustang"  Update
Thunder Mustang For Reno This Year?

We've just received word from Tom Giertz, who has been putting in 12+ hour days for three weeks up at the Thunder Mustang Werks in Nampa, Idaho. Tom volunteered his talents to help the factory group finish an airplane for Reno 98' "I am back from spending 20 days working on the Mustang. 20 straight days of 12-16 hour days! A lot of work, but worth every minute." It appears their efforts have done the trick to get a TM flying for the event.... getting it into the event may not prove as easy..... "It looks as if the plane will be ready to fly, but may not have a pilot available." said the very tired Giertz..... When we last talked to Dave Morss, he was quite eager to get behind the throttle of a TM for the events, savoring the thought of being in, and possibly, winning the inaugural Sport Class event. Apparently the lateness of the finishing and prior commitments could become a problem for getting Morss behind the stick for this year....Giertz reports..."The schedule with Dave Morss was very tight. That is why we may have a pilot problem."

Tom told us we will see the Thunder Stang at Reno... "The plane will definitely be at Reno, but maybe not racing. It does have its airworthiness certificate and the area to fly off the restrictions is far enough to reach Reno!" However it was not there as of 19:00 hrs on Sunday when we stopped by Stead on our way in from our own "low level" chevy pickup flight down from Oregon...(this is another story entirely and we have the right to not incriminate ourselves... ok ok.... 8.5 hrs block to block from Portland to Stead.... What can I say....<g>)

Tom also cleared up the identity of this particular airplane. We had been referring to it as "Factory #2". In fact, it is a customer owned airplane....."This particular airplane will be the first customer airplane. It belongs to Tommy Rose of Mississippi. PAPA-51 will use it until Sun-N-Fun. The second factory airplane should be ready to fly there. It is possible that there will be 3 or 4 at Oshkosh next year!"

This opens up another area of speculation.... When we talked to Papa 51's Charles Denny earlier about this airplane and the possibility of seeing a supercharged version....he alluded to seeing this engine in an airplane at Sun-N-Fun.... Could this be the second factory airplane.... Ahh... Sweeet Mystery!!

Tom provides the photos seen in this article, AAFO.COM will bring you more from the Air Race site, particularly some round the pylon shots......*IF* a pilot can be found to race the airplane.....Cross your fingers and wish this dedicated team a hardy GOOD LUCK! They certainly deserve a ton of respect for what they accomplished in such a short time.

(more pictures of the Thunder Mustang)
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