Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Thu Mar 31, 2022 6:27 pm
According to Facebook, A6M3 c/n 3858 N553TT has finished it's annual/maintenance at Fighter Rebuilders. They predict it will be flying to it's new home in Granite Falls, Minnesota within the next week or so. That makes it incredibly likely that it'll participate in the Ray Fagen Memorial Airshow this coming June.
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Thu Mar 31, 2022 7:22 pm
What about Oshkosh... 
Phil
Phil
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Thu Mar 31, 2022 8:33 pm
phil65 wrote:What about Oshkosh...
Phil
I wouldn't be surprised to see it there. They usually bring new aircraft to Oshkosh, so it would make sense that this would be no different. Just an assumption.
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Thu Mar 31, 2022 9:56 pm
Bernie Vasquez shared some photos of him flying the Zero last week. Some people have cool jobs!
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Fri Apr 01, 2022 11:45 am
Back from test flight 26 March 2022
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Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Fri Apr 01, 2022 12:21 pm
Yes last Saturday he was up in it for a long time on the final test flight. I’m glad I hung out in my car a bit after lunch , because I saw it come over for the final , then also got some pics like BDK as it taxied in.
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Fri Apr 01, 2022 3:19 pm
Last I saw on Facebook it was in Vacaville, Ca.
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Sat Apr 02, 2022 7:40 pm
Which airplane is this? One of the former Flight Magic Zeros? Is this the one that went to Alaska a few years ago after a Japanese businessman bought it?
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Sat Apr 02, 2022 8:50 pm
Dan Jones wrote:Which airplane is this? One of the former Flight Magic Zeros? Is this the one that went to Alaska a few years ago after a Japanese businessman bought it?
https://wings-on-film.fandom.com/wiki/N553TT
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Sun Apr 03, 2022 12:31 am
https://wings-on-film.fandom.com/wiki/N553TT
Key words here are "Retaining only the landing gear from the wreck, and now powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830,".
This takes us back to the real-vs-reproduction issue. This airplane would be, hands-down in my book, a "reproduction using some original parts". This should not be confused with a "real" Zero, such as the one Planes of Fame that has the original engine and would I think be fairly substantially original.
I think it important that we make these distinctions. The plane here is valuable as an educational, recreational, and air-show vehicle, but this should not be sold to the public as the real thing. That would be, in my opinion, dishonest and self-serving.
Key words here are "Retaining only the landing gear from the wreck, and now powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830,".
This takes us back to the real-vs-reproduction issue. This airplane would be, hands-down in my book, a "reproduction using some original parts". This should not be confused with a "real" Zero, such as the one Planes of Fame that has the original engine and would I think be fairly substantially original.
I think it important that we make these distinctions. The plane here is valuable as an educational, recreational, and air-show vehicle, but this should not be sold to the public as the real thing. That would be, in my opinion, dishonest and self-serving.
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Sun Apr 03, 2022 4:56 am
Seeing very very few original drawings exist at all for the zero having "anything" in the air is an achievement.
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Sun Apr 03, 2022 9:03 am
What "issue"? Most of the P-51's flying around nowadays are a long, long ways from original by that definition. It's a Zero, just not an original one. It's got a different engine, but a Sea Fury is still a Sea Fury even if it has a -2800 in it, right? If it's true to the original in it's design (and I assume it largely is) then it's a Zero, just not a Mitsubishi built one. I used to fly a Twin Otter built from twenty-six different airplanes (including one I'd flown previously) and with a scratch built forward fuselage and cockpit, but nobody ever called it a replica, it was just "-IZD" (and she was a hell of a good airplane). Rest assured that anyone who's gonna lay down the kind of coin it would take to buy it is going to be very well versed in it's provenance.
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Sun Apr 03, 2022 11:43 am
Spitty wrote:Seeing very very few original drawings exist at all for the zero having "anything" in the air is an achievement.
Not meaning to sound negative but have you ever seen the Film Board of Canada documentary "The Defender"? In the part of the video where an A6M2 was being "reconstructed" for the CAF, you will see that some sort of blueprint/plans were available. I have a history with that plane. You can find the video on YouTube. Don't laugh too hard! All the best.
Randy
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Sun Apr 03, 2022 12:33 pm
"A rose by any other name is still a rose." I think the buyers of these Zeros, F3f's, Oscars, ME-262's, wooden Spitfires, Flug Werk 190's and Yaks understand for what they're paying. There is a price difference and it's understood. It's nice seeing example3s once extinct or almost extinct from the air , flying once again to be enjoyed by all.
Re: Fagen Fighters A6M3 is completed.
Sun Apr 03, 2022 12:44 pm
Randy Wilson wrote:Spitty wrote:Seeing very very few original drawings exist at all for the zero having "anything" in the air is an achievement.
Not meaning to sound negative but have you ever seen the Film Board of Canada documentary "The Defender"? In the part of the video where an A6M2 was being "reconstructed" for the CAF, you will see that some sort of blueprint/plans were available. I have a history with that plane. You can find the video on YouTube. Don't laugh too hard! All the best.
Randy
What was the official reason given to the membership for retiring the Zero? I can well imagine the unofficial ones.