- Joined
- Jun 28, 2014
- Messages
- 443
- Reaction score
- 106
So here is the story. Ive owned my Starduster Too for a year and a half and have had it weighed twice by my mechanic.The aircraft was built and first flown in 1977. It has had several well qualified owners as well as having been inspected by the FAA through out the build process so it is amazing to me that no one else caught this. It seems for what ever reason the original builder decided to use the forward edge of the prop hub as his reference datum point rather than the engine fire wall like every other Starduster I have been able to document. That means that the main gear arm is approximately 57.5 inches instead of 8 (The firewall is 49.5 aft of the prop hub). Everyone follow so far. The problem came in when I noticed the tail wheel, at 174.5 was about the same distance as all the other Stardusters. Sure enough I measure with a tape measure and the arm for the tailwheel was measured from the firewall not the prop hub. All these years and the wt&bal has been wrong. Unbelievable!
