(Re)Starting The Build

April 12th, 2014, I was bumming around the airport when my dad called me. "Dale Johnson is about to call you, and you should say yes". A few minutes later, one of the most beautiful biplanes I had ever seen taxiied by. Shortly after that, Dale called me and asked if I wanted a biplane ride. That was a life changing event. It was my first official flying lesson (and the first entry in my logbook) and my first biplane ride. I had previously decided that I needed a de Havilland Tiger Moth (which, to this day, remains my favorite airplane), and the Starduster ride in N22TF sealed the deal. I was hooked

I've had my Starduster for 2 and a half years now, and am finally getting serious about getting the airplane finished. I bought her in October of 2017, and it's now February of 2020. I received a phone call from Dave Baxter (the Starduster Guru) early that October, where he mentioned to me that he knew of a nice project that might be up for sale, that the guy wanted it to go to someone who had a real passion for it, and that if I didn't buy it, he just might have to. 3 weeks later, I was down in Cameron Park, California, picking up my new airplane. A friend and I flew down, rented a Penske truck, packed it up, and brought it home.

It just so happened that Dad's Stinson was in the shop for a recover at the time, so for a short while I had the hangar to myself, allowing me to get a good idea of what exactly it was that I had just brought home. At time of purchase, the fuselage (beautifully welded) was on landing gear. The top wings are about 90% complete, and all of the ribs for the lower wings had been cut already. My hangar neighbor was kind enough to give me his wing racks from his Zenith, so I had a way to store the wings. The lower wing spars had been partially cut, and completely marked out. A large amount of fittings have already been fabricated, and last summer a friend of mine send me all the lower wing hardware from his wrecked Starduster. The project also came with wheels and Cleveland brakes, Whelen nav/strobe combination lights, enough hardware to at least finish the wings, and all of the wood and tubing to finish the wings/tail surfaces/cabane struts.

I started attending an A&P program in January of 2018, and started a new job a couple weeks in, which immediately sucked away all of my free time. My poor airplane has sat with little progress the last 2 years, outside of some corrosion control, acquiring some avionics, and a few aileron pieces. I am now nearing completion of the program and am getting back to work on the airplane. Currently, bits and pieces are scattered around several hangars, as my dad recently acquired a Cherokee Challenger (PA-28-180), leaving little room in the hangar. Reorganizing is on the schedule. I would like to complete the rest of the air frame this year (or at least, most of it) so that I can be covering in 2021.