The Red Pitts Keeps Staring At Me

[arffguy]

I have heard a Pitts will ruin you for life. All other planes are too dull after that. Comments from the Pitts owners?

[Tom Navar]

Yes, the Pitts will indeed ruin you for life. After all, it is a well-known aphorism that landing a Pitts is a mixture between an orgasm and a near-death experience.

[gmann750]

I sold my RV 4 to buy a Pitts S-1S that was built by Curtis Pitts. It weighed 762 pounds empty and had 200 hp. First take off was insane. Good training is a must I flew 5 hrs with Johnny White in my dads s-2. I think I had 140 hrs tt 100 of that tailwheel, cub, rv, citabria. It all helped me along the way. I now have a Christen eagle and its as comfortable as a rv and better visibility than a Pitts much faster too! If you want the Pitts buy it, it will make you a much better pilot, it will really tune you into stick and rudder flying. The good thing about the s-1 is its so small that you can stuff into a hangar with your RV.

[N804RV]

I got 5 hours in a Pitts S-2C. It was my "adventure vacation" a couple of years ago.

I did Sean Tucker's unusual attitude course (E-PATS?). What amazed me was how completely docile the Pitts seemed once it was throttled back in the pattern; right up until you round out at the bottom and the runway disappears!

I wholeheartedly recommend everyone should go buy some aerobatic dual instruction in something like a Pitts. It really puts stalls, spins and unusual attitudes into perspective for you if you've only flown spam cans.

One of these days I will own Pitts S-2C, or something like it!

[tracy]

Originally Posted by Ironflight

I have a buddy that has had a nice red Pitts standing on it's nose without an engine in the corner of his hangar for years. I asked him for it several times (this was years before my RV was even a dream - was flying my trusty big-engined AA1B at the time), but he never wanted to let it go. Finally, one time, he said I could put it together and fly it if I wanted....but then I got busy with other things, and never got back to it.

The one time I got serious about it though, I asked a buddy named "Hoot" who happened to be running the astronaut office at the time what he thought about the original Pitts. "Great airplane!" he said..."and the most difficult airplane I have ever landed...." Ahh....OK, thanks Hoot! I decided to pass....(he'd flown about 180 differnt types of airplanes BTW)...

Now I know it's just another airplane, and huge number of pilots have flown them. I am pretty sure I'd enjoy the heck out of one if I had the time....but way back then, with a lot less experience in my logbook, and not a lot of money to pay for a real, thorough checkout, it just wasn't a good idea for me....

Still want to try one one day though!

<end of story>

I had a Pitts S2B and it was not that bad. Hoot was here in Chattanooga at an air show and I offered him a ride in exchange for a ride in the Mig 21. I got my 21 ride with him.....now that was a ride... Or should I say a "HOOT"

[tracy]

The pitts is fun for about 50 hrs, then I got tired of it. You couldn't go anywhere and it was expensive to fly. It only held 29 gl and burned 15/hr.
However, yours would be less with smaller engine. The 30 minutes of acro was fun, but the 8 hrs of headache that followed was not. I kept making myself sick doing that stuff and that was 10 yrs ago when I was a young pup. Hate to think what it would do to me now.

[bhassel]

This may be somewhat sacrilegious but I was watching a video of the Pitts S1C & S2C in LSA clothing. They couldn't use the name Pitts so they called them 'Lil Rascal 1 and 2'. They are in development by Renegade Aircraft. A little bit larger cockpit and carbon fiber wings.

I'm not an upside down kind of person but boy they sure looked fun and sexy. That would make an incredible RV-16....

Bob

[Gisnar]

There are at least two ways to calculate the correct number of airplanes to own:
One is N+1, where N is the current number of airplanes.
The other is S-1, where S is the number that would cause the spouse to leave.

[Neal@F14]

A good friend of mine, who got me into RVs, just traded his RV-4 for a 200hp Christen Eagle II so it looks like one of these days soon I'll get some Eagle time myself. We've also got two bright red Pitts S1s on the field as well, one of the Pitts owners is the respected authority on the airport WRT these biplanes. The first thing he says about landing them is "You know you're over the runway when you can't see it anymore".

[edsong]

Now thats funny. I fly Pitts's and it's true, they're much harder to drive than they are to fly. I'm just lucky I get to fly them off a grass strip most of the time.