STARDUSTER ONE
built 1966 by Gordon Wayne Nauta
Beginning the unbuilding Process
These photos were taken on 4/1/2000 (no foolin'). My son, daughter, and I set out on a beautiful Saturday morning. We started the day at the EAA breakfast held the first Saturday of every month at Twin Oaks Airport south of Hillsboro, Oregon.
As I was working on the Starduster a local man stopped by to say hello and tell me a little more about it. He told me he was there when it flew in and that it was "pristine". He told me the finish was so shiny that you couldn't look at it in the sunlight. He was sad to see it in the shape it is in. He also admitted to flying it once years ago. He said it flew very nice and was very much fun.
I am preparing to move the aircraft and attempting to document the disassembly steps as thoroughly as possible.
If you have any comments, questions or suggestions my email is gaderene@aol.com
These are the left aileron cables. The caple on top is already out from under the pulley. The next photo shows the right side the way it was before disassembly.
Right side aileron cables.
Ah that wonderful metal-flake upholstery material. What else would you make a control stick boot out of? Actually, this photo shows the Aileron Cable Connection. The connection makes aileron cables into one long cable from the left aileron to the right aileron making it impossible to move one aileron without moving the other. The cable ends are threaded and screw into the connector. There is a chunk of wire that is threaded through the holes and wrapped so as to keep the connector from threading itself out.
Lower connection of the Left Wing Upright. The bolt on the right is a levelling adjustment. The nut on the top can be removed if the nut underneath doesn't move. I don't know the condition of this wing so I decided to leave the adjustment alone just in case the wing checks out.
The wire's held on by a pin which is then held in place by a cotter pin.
The rear wire for the upper wing connecting the fuselage to the outer wing connects to the lower wing nearly at the fuselage. There is an inspection/access plate underneath that allowed the room necessary to pull the pin. You can see the line and holes from the wing/fuselage mating fairing.
Left upright upper joint. Two bolts hold the aluminum frame to the wing. The frame is covered and painted.
Just to show the fuselage without the wing. The front connection must be the stress connection. The bolt that I pulled from that connection was bent significantly. A sheer at this stress point would probably be catastrophic. The bolts should/will be replaced with new.
The Starduster without the left lower wing. Notice the windscreen is removed. In order to access the ailreon cables the seat had to be removed. In order to remove the seat, the windscreen had to be removed. Im ready to pull the lower right wing and the upper wing next weekend.
