Blame it on YouTube. Sailors have an affliction they call "bigger boat disease" or "one-foot-itis," and I was starting to feel the rumblings of the aviator's version. I had been flying and enjoying my Fisher FP-404 biplane for the past three years but was starting to bump into its limitations: low speed, modest climb rate, and no aerobatic capability. I was sort of keeping my eyes on prices for a Smith Miniplane, Baby Lakes, or similar, when a member of the Homebuilt Airplanes Forum mentioned that his friend Jerry Carter had a Starduster One for sale at a good price. I was vaguely aware of the Starduster as one of numerous homebuilt biplanes but never really looked at them; there aren't that many of the single seaters around, and the two-place versions are outside my budget. Anyway, some research showed me that a Starduster might be a good choice. Then I came across some YouTube videos Jerry had posted of him flying the plane a few years earlier, and that was all it took. The next day, with a serious face, I told one of my flying buddies, "I did a very foolish thing last night…I watched a video." A few days later, I was on an airline flight to Memphis, Tennessee, armed with my checkbook. After looking it over, I became the proud new owner of a somewhat beat up ("A flyer, not a show plane," Jerry had warned me), but basically solid Starduster SA-100.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/flight-safety/biplane-cross-country