Bob Odaguard on Junkyard Wars

[Matt Gunsch]

I was looking thru the channels and came across Junkyard wars, and who was on it but Mr Super Corsair himself. It was the championship. His team lost

[retroaviation]

What was he tasked to build?

[CAPFlyer]

Mr. O was on a team with former Governor of ND Ed Schafer (now Sec. Ag.), and Mr. Schafer's brother-in-law Rolf Sletten.

They competed on in the 2003 series (US Season 5) when they went to the finals, they had the following challenges -

Cardozer - Build a bulldozer that can clear a wall of cars from an obstacle course.

Laundry Launchers - Build a device to launch washing machines and hit closest to the bullseye (they built a trebuchet and did quite well)

Off-road Golf - Build an off-road capable machine to play 3 holes of "Junkyard Wars Off-Road Mega-Golf". The "golf ball" was a soccer ball. The "High Flyers" team built a neat contraption, but accuracy was a problem which led to the other team and their more accurate machine to win.

I did a Google search and found the following - http://www.qwizx.com/jyw/usseries5/index.html

Just click on the "High Flyers" links to see the challenges they performed.

There was also this on from the Topeka Capital-Journal back in 2002 -

Former governor readies for TV

BISMARCK, N.D. -- Former Gov. Ed Schafer has gotten a stint in a Los Angeles junkyard.

Schafer; his brother-in-law, Bismarck lawyer Rolf Sletten; and Bob Odegaard, a Kindred airplane rebuilder, have landed a spot on The Learning Channel's "Junkyard Wars" show, which challenges participants to build machines from scavenged parts.

The Schafer-Sletten-Odegaard team was one of eight picked for the show's next season, which will air in late summer or early fall 2003. More than 1,000 teams applied.

Schafer, who collects classic automobiles, said he sometimes worked on engines for relaxation during his tenure as governor.

"I grew up with my hand on a wrench, bending metal and welding and things," he said.

Contestants are told what the project is shortly before they are asked to put it together. They have 10 hours to finish. They are provided with tools and advice from an expert, which the show supplies.

Participants have built amphibious vehicles, monster trucks, hovercraft and drilling machines.

The teams are judged on whether their machines can perform a series of specified tasks, a spokeswoman for the show said. The junkyard, located in a Los Angeles suburb, is actually a production set, but its parts are taken from actual junkyards.

Schafer said they had to answer a number of questions during the application process, as well as make a video to demonstrate their abilities to cut metal, weld and explain what they were doing.

"When they first called, they said, 'We're not sure that we've ever had a governor apply before, much less even watch our program,"' Schafer said. "We were able to overcome that problem."

[Baldeagle]

I was on Junkyard Wars in 2003 also, we built and flew this:


1910 Walden Monoplane

It was a Centennial of Flight show, you were supposed to build a 1910 era airplane from your country. Unfortunately the Brits cheated and built an ultralight based on a 1930s German primary glider which flew better than the other two aircraft.....




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[CAPFlyer]

I remember that episode. Agreed that they bent the rules quite a bit on that one.

BTW, here's the link to your episode from the website above -

http://www.qwizx.com/jyw/specials/flight/flight1.html