The Replica Fighters Association

Normally, the first couple days at Arlington are overcase with the temps rising later in the weekend. This year, we started off about as hot as it gets with record temperatures Wednesday and Thursday and continued hot, perfect weather into the weekend. As this post is edited, the Fly-In is still in progress. The Editor had hoped to bring his Boredom Fighter up to Arlington, but a bad right mag and not enough time to repair, conspired against him. Thing were looking fairly slim until Friday when a Titan T-51 pulled in to at least give us the impression someone was home. There were 2 Noon-Partol Neuiports tied down at the new, and very cool Red Barn, but they moved in with RFA on Saturday, in addition to Ton Gaston’s Thunder Mustang “Live Bait”. One Live Bait showed up, it was almost standing room only around the site and we commented that that was probably the most folks we’d ever seen around the RFA Headquarters! So aside from a somewhat slow start, it appears Arlington 2010 finished up nicely.

For more photos, see the Arlington 2010 photos in the Gallery.

    It’s that time again.  Yes, after working all winter on our projects it’s time to start thinking about taking them to a fly-in for show and tell.  Here’s a list of the major events we intend to support in 2010. Click the link for the current details! Read the rest of this entry »

The official report should be in work and we’ll get that posted when it’s available.  This year, the weather wasn’t too kind to the smaller aircraft with stiff winds out of the west the first several days of the show, punctuated with afternoon showers almost every day. By Wednesday, RFA did have 5 aircraft on site including a turbin-powered Stewart S-51 and four WW1 replicas. Initial photos are uploaded to the Album section so have a look. As we get more photos from the show, we’ll get those uploaded.

Nuts and Bolts by Tom Preuss

As one of my final efforts as acting board chairman I want to encourage as many of you as I can to come to Oshkosh ’09 with your airplane.  This could be a banner year as we have confirmation for over 6 attending aircraft. Light a candle.

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The following was submitted by the RFA Board Chairman, Tom Preuss (Note: some photos have been posted in the Album section and more will be posted when they are available):

Ed Murray, our Arlington Event Chairman, did a great job in organizing the 2009 RFA presence at Arlington.  He had been working with the Arlington people for a month or more, doing various maintenance jobs at the flyin site.  Ed had secured a new (to RFA) trailer to replace the old one, and he was able to paint our new trailer, put two coats of weather proofing mastic on the roof, replaced a spot of soft wood in the floor by the door, and gave it a complete cleaning.  He did a great job.

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Ever wonder how aircraft are judged at Oshkosh (AKA AirVenture) for the RFA? RFA Chief Judge,Terry White, has provided a nice write up of what he’s looking for. Follow the link to get the details and see just what the scratch in the paint is going to cost you! 
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The RFA Magazine Editor tells us that the July edition should hit the mail on June 8th so look for it soon! Features this time around are a FW-190 project, an update on Oshkosh (AirVenture) 2009,  an article pertaining to the Great War Association re-enactment at Newville, PA, a great post on a Stuka dive bomber replica, the history of a P-51 called Stump Jumper, an excellent  how-to on painting and decorating your airplane by Phillip Fox of Woodway Sign Center….well, you get the idea. Lots of good stuff on Replicas!

Darren Henley, a FEW Mustang builder, got tired of the lack of communication across the 60-odd member FEW builder community. In his words, the FEW builders have been a rather fragmented community and he had received virtually no support from the present kit purveyor.  It was Darren’s opinion that there was a better way of creating a communication network between the builders so he had a forum started on another forum host. That proved to be a little too obscure, so he created a new group on Yahoo! Groups. For those that use the Yahoo Groups, those forums are extremely easy to set up, easy to post to, and have great support for files and pictures. If your’e a FEW owner/ builder, please reach out and join the Yahoo Group. Darren looks forward to other owners of FEW Mustangs collaborating through the new group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FEWbuilders.

RFA received this notice recently so we wanted to post. Since it’s coming up quickly, we’re putting it on the front page! 

Timeless Wings And Wheels will be having their first Muscle & Mustangs car and P-51 show this Saturday, March 21, 2009 from 9 – 2 at 333 South Street, New Smyrna Beach Airport. We will be collecting pet food donations for the Southeast Volusia Humane Society. No smoking, no coolers.  We will be selling food and drinks to benefit the museum.  For more infomation visit www.timelesswingsandwheels.com.

RFA is announcing a preview of our 2009 airshow trophies. For Oshkosh, we’ll be awarding a People’s Choice award, as well as Best WWI and Best WWII. At Arlington and Copperstate, Best WWI and Best WWII will be awarded. And as usual, your airplane must be present to win!