01/09/2002. Remarks by owner Rich Chiappe: "N1011Z is a Stolp Starduster Too that was built by Ozzie Ozwald of Spokane, Washington. Ozwald was a truck driver by trade but spent WW II as a Navy Metalsmith in the Aviation wing. He and his wife built the plane together working every night after dinner for the four years between 1968 and 1972. Ozzie had previously built a mid-wing single-seat airplane called a Flut-R-Bug (N447M - no longer listed on FAA registry). He loved the Flut-R-Bug but saw Stolp's first Starduster Prototype in Arlington in the late 1960s and decided that is what he would build next.

N1011Z in paint colour and scheme of SA-300 Starduster Too prototype (Ron Dupas Collection)

In fact, Ozzie decided he would use the original paint colour and scheme of Stolp's prototype as well. Ozzie built every single piece by hand (including forming the windscreens in an oven himself!) except the nose bowl, turtle deck and tail wheel. There were no electrics on the aircraft when Ozzie owned it. The engine came from a wrecked Twin Comanche. Ozzie bought it from an A&P mechanic in Tekoa, Washington.

First flight was out of Coeur D'Alene Airport (Spokane) and Ozzie flew it himself. It took him three tries to land (due to PIO/Crow-hopping on the first two attempts). The plane was built to plans which at that time caused tail heaviness. He never successfully removed the tail heaviness. Eventually, he improved its performance by hanging 50 lb (23 kg) of lead off of the starter bolt attach points on the engine. His instructor was the second person to fly the aircraft and he too proceeded to bounce it three times on landing.

Ozzie found flying the aircraft far less exciting than building (!?). His logs show only 13.5 hours of flight time (he certainly flew more, but no record has been found). In May of 1974 he decided to sell it in to James Wynne of Spokane. Wynne was a USAF pilot that had no tail wheel time. On his first flight after purchasing the plane from Ozzie, he proceeded to ground loop it while Ozzie looked-on.

Information on Wynne's ownership is limited to aircraft logs at this time. After repairs from the first ground loop, Wynne flew it for nearly sixty hours over two years. But in 1976 the aircraft was again sold. This time to Jon Nace of Mishawaka, Indiana. It appears in the logs that Wynne delivered the aircraft to Mishawaka in July of 1976 but this is speculative based on a vague log entry that records 7:45 of time flown in one day.

Nace added an electrical system in August of 1976. He flew the plane 88 hours between July of 1976 and Augustus 1978. Some time around August, the plane must have been ground-looped (at 168.93 hours) or otherwise motivated Nace to remove its covering and reconfigure the landing gear and engine mounts (to fix the aft center of gravity challenge per Stolp bulletins). The aircraft was recovered in October of 1981 and flown again in December of 1981. Nace's last logbook entry is in August of 1983 at 229.3 hours or an additional sixty hours since recovering was completed.

Nace sold the aircraft at the 1983 Oshkosh convention to Matt Doyle of Scottdale, Pennsylvania. There are no records how much (or how little) Doyle flew the plane but he only owned it for four months.

Roy Uptegraff of Scottdale purchased the plane from Mr. Doyle in December of 1983. Roy was the fifth owner of N1011Z:

"I bought the plane from Matt Doyle in late 1983. Matt bought the plane from Jon Nace who went to tears when he sold it. It was Jon who rebuilt it after the original owner and builder ground-looped it. Apparently, the original owner had more fun building it then he did flying it.

A significant problem with the plane was it had too aft of a center of gravity. Jon put a new extended engine mount on it when he rebuilt it and the Stits Lakeland blue, Miami blue, and yellow paint scheme. He sold the plane to Matt in 1983 at the Oshkosh airshow and delivered it to the Mount Pleasant/Scottdale airport (P45).

Matt traded planes like crazy and I thought the plane was so neat looking; I bought it on sight from him. I was 28 at the time and never flew a tail-dragger but since I was an Air Guard pilot, I got my commander to teach me. My commander flew USMC Skyraiders off of carriers and it was no problem for him!

The plane was a joy to fly. I installed the wheel pants you see in this picture and changed the tail wheel from a Scott to a Maule. I also put the antennas on the plane, the VOR (VHF omnidirectional range) antenna in the tail and the VHF (very-high frequency) antenna between the gear. I used a battery operated handheld Terra radio until I could afford to buy a real Terra radio with an intercom which I mounted on the back of the front seat. Additionally, I put removable glass fiber floor boards in.

The final mod I did was to install the wheel pants which I thought enhanced its appearance. I had two major problems with the plane. First, during a take off, the exhaust pipe separated from the engine! Unbelievable as it may sound, the exhaust pipe landed in a backyard garden and was returned. This was an engineering flaw so we developed a slip-joint in the long raked-back exhaust pipe to take the weight and stress off of it.

The other problem I had was the vibration I got in the aileron slave struts due to resonant frequency induced flutter at higher airspeeds. The slave struts were tear-shaped and that got scary. Bill Clouse, the President of Starduster told me about taping a couple of 0.125 in (3.2 mm) welding rods to the slave struts which was sufficient to break up the airflow and that solved the problem.

I got married in 1985 and my life changed! I really could not keep the SA-300 so I sold it to Roy Myers. I taught him how to fly it and he took it to Texas. I could go on, but I would probably bore you." Col Roy E. Uptegraff

Uptegraff flew the plane 120 hours over 2.5 years.

Roy Myers brought the aircraft to Arlington, Texas in August of 1986 with approximately 350 hours on it:

"I purchased 1011Z from Roy Uptegraff. I was estatic about the purchase since it was my first airplane. All the history I knew, or know, is from the logbooks. I didn't change anything on the airplane, just made repairs here and there when they were needed, and of course, tried to polish the paint off. Wish I could be of help. I've still got two pictures of her right over my computer desk. First love thing, ya know." Roy Myers

Myers flew the aircraft 355 hours over seven years before selling the aircraft to Glenn Frels of El Campo, Texas in June of 1993. Frels also changed nothing on the aircraft except for his exceptional maintenance. Frels flew the aircraft 150 hours over seven years before selling to me in June of 2000.

On June 6, 2000, N1011Z was damaged on its first flight by my brother, Glenn when the right wheel departed our 30 ft (9 m) wide runway at Spicewood, Texas and stuck in some deep mud caused by atypical summer rains. The aircraft suffered a prop strike and damage to its upper wing, wheel pants and vertical stabilizer and rudder.

In August of 2000, the aircraft was sent via Ryder box van to La Porte, Texas where it was repaired by Harvey & Rhin mechanic Robert Felts. It was test flown by Gary Mockton on June 6, 2001 and after ten hours of dual with two of Debbie Rihn's best aerobatic biplane pilots, I brought it back to Austin days later.

Today, N1011Z flies regularly out of Spicewood Airport (88R) outside of Austin, Texas.

(Sorry, no larger image) (Sorry, no larger image)

Read the type remarks on page 12803.