About a year ago I purchased N379C AKA Snoopy, and formerly Charlotte, from a two degrees of separation family friend. The previous owner Jim had recently flown west and was a friend of my dear friend Lars, who not so coincidentally now owns a Starduster Too project. Although I did not get to meet Jim, I did get to meet Dave Baxter and have some wonderful chats with him as he tried to convince me that a biplane may not be the airplane for everyone. Well, as you can tell that did not dissuade me from purchasing the most impractical and breathtaking form of aviation. Dave has been so welcoming and supportive as many of you on this forum already know. So now I have a biplane.
I had previously owned a Piper Cherokee 140 and have an instrument rating and about 600 hrs flight time. No real tail wheel time to speak of, but that was soon to change. Lars is a CFI and together we worked on getting me a tail wheel endorsement and a level of comfort with the Starduster Too. During that time we flew Snoopy down to Reno for the air races and back, which is a story all its own, and I finally got the endorsement. Since then I have been flying around getting comfortable with the airplane and meeting all kinds of amazing people. I call Snoopy the friend maker as people often want to come look at the Starduster. I took my wife up to Orcas Island for our anniversary in July. It was a trip we had made in the Cherokee a few years earlier. I meet some wonderful people at Green Trees airpark and so many others all over the state. The Starduster community is pretty tight and despite the pandemic, have meet a lot of great people in this last year of flying. I now have about 60 hours in this airplane, but he really needs some TLC. The fabric is from 1979 and the paint is starting to chip badly.
I will be posting in this thread to document the process of replacing fabric and restoring the airplane.
I had previously owned a Piper Cherokee 140 and have an instrument rating and about 600 hrs flight time. No real tail wheel time to speak of, but that was soon to change. Lars is a CFI and together we worked on getting me a tail wheel endorsement and a level of comfort with the Starduster Too. During that time we flew Snoopy down to Reno for the air races and back, which is a story all its own, and I finally got the endorsement. Since then I have been flying around getting comfortable with the airplane and meeting all kinds of amazing people. I call Snoopy the friend maker as people often want to come look at the Starduster. I took my wife up to Orcas Island for our anniversary in July. It was a trip we had made in the Cherokee a few years earlier. I meet some wonderful people at Green Trees airpark and so many others all over the state. The Starduster community is pretty tight and despite the pandemic, have meet a lot of great people in this last year of flying. I now have about 60 hours in this airplane, but he really needs some TLC. The fabric is from 1979 and the paint is starting to chip badly.
I will be posting in this thread to document the process of replacing fabric and restoring the airplane.
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