“After I got the Starduster finished—its first flight was July 12,
2007—I started getting serious
about finishing up my private
pilot’s license,” explains Dan. “Dave
Aldridge at Scappoose, Oregon, does
tailwheel checkouts. I got about 10
hours in his Piper Pacer, and I told
him, ‘I want the first airplane that
I solo to be my airplane.’ By that
time, he was comfortable enough to
do that. So we switched over to the
Starduster, and I did the rest of my
dual, my first solo, and my night
flying in this airplane. And I did my
hood time with Foggles—I only have
a turn and bank in there, so that was
pretty hard. About half of that was
done on the night cross-country.
There aren’t too many people walking around on the face of the earth
who have built their own airplane,
and have done all their flight training and gotten their private pilot’s
license in it.”
Flight Characteristics
The Starduster Too requires only light,
fluid pressures for its flight-control
input, partially due to the push-pull
tubes that operate the elevator and
four ailerons. “It’s very responsive,”
shares Dave. “You think about where
you want the airplane to go, and it
goes there. It’s that subtle. And the
rudder is even more sensitive.”
With the 180-hp Lycoming, Dave
likes to fly his takeoff roll by putting
the stick forward as soon as he puts
the power in, to lift the tail off the
ground—primarily to increase visibility
over the nose. “It accelerates fairly fast.
I generally lift off at about 60 knots
indicated within 300 feet, and I like
to climb at 80 or 90 knots—whatever’s
comfortable. I fly the pattern between
90-100 knots, and pretty much get the
power off on final. I like to fly close-in
patterns with steep approaches, and
slip the airplane to lose altitude. The
airplane’s been way more than I ever
thought it would be.”
UPPER: The ailerons are operated by
push-pull tubes.
MIDDLE: A 290-hp, six-cylinder IO-540-
G1B5 is tucked inside Dan’s Starduster.
LOWER: The instrument panels are
virtually identical, except Dave’s airspeed
is in knots and Dan’s is in mph.
N96576 and N96558 have virtually identical instrument panels with
basic visual flight rules instrumentation, along with an electric turn
and bank. Dave flies with both GPS
and Loran. Dan uses a GPS. “These
airplanes don’t fly straight and level
very long by themselves,” explains
Dave. “A lot of flight planning goes a
long way; I really admire the people
who flew [Stardusters] with map and
compass and real dead reckoning
back in the 1960s.”
Flying Into the Future
Dan wasted no time embarking on
his first long cross-country as a private pilot. “I took my checkride in
it on June 29, 2008, and then flew
out to Oshkosh with my dad. Flying
in was an experience. It was really
intimidating,” Dan reflects, “so the
main thing I did was follow him.”
Though the Stardusters are not
perfectly matched to fly in loose formation for nearly 1,700 nm, father
and son made it work. Dan’s carries
30 gallons in the main tank, 16 in the
wing tank, and burns 14 gph. That
Sparky Barnes Sargent
Sparky Barnes Sargent
