Pitts Jitters

B

Bill1200

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Apr 9, 2008
Messages
25
Location
Redding,Calif.
Display Name
Display name:
Bill1200
Stumbed onto this site while looking up some specs on Pitts S2C, so first want to say howdy. Second, I have been flying a Super D for about a year, have about 36 hours in it. Feel very comfortable doing aero in it. Scheduled to fly Pitts in 2 days, as I would like a little more power and would like to do more maneuvers in the vertical. The Pitts is the only plane (so far)that just plain intimidates me, and I don't know why. I'm hoping after the first flight that will be history. Any similar first encounters?
 
Last edited:
Bill, Welcome to the board!

Ya found a great place to hang out and meet some great folks. Well, most of 'em. Gotta excuse those Mooney pilots. :)

I hope ya enjoy the place. I'll look forward to reading your posts and learning more about this inverted bug you have. My only encounter has been in a Super D with some extra treats during spin training.
 
When I bought my Pitts after several hundred Citabria hours, I got checked out by a very very experienced Pitts pilot and airshow instructor. He gave me these words of wisdom: "There are two kinds of landings in a Pitts: successful and unsuccessful." Throw away the quest for style points.

I owned mine for less than a year and flew it about 70 hours. On every single one of my landings, after clearing the runway I took a deep breath, relieved that I didn't crack it up.

They are very very fun to fly (unless you go 1400 nm in 2 days, but that's another story). But they are very responsive and unstable. You have to stay on top of 'em every moment. I was in cruise flight once and stretched my legs -- and almost did a snap roll.

The difficult landings -- such as strong crosswinds -- are IMO easier because they focus your mind. It's the routine ones that, well, never get routine.

That said, the Pitts is the only one of my five airplanes I regret selling.
 
I was in cruise flight once and stretched my legs -- and almost did a snap roll.
Click to expand...

Yikes! A few guys have them where I used to be based at KFTG. They look like a blast to fly. It seems like an airplane where currency is paramount.
 
It always helps if you have a *lot* of witnesses to your landings, don't it? (grin)
 
Thanks Ken, the instructor I chose has a ton of experience, so that should help. They wanted to give me the fellow who trained me in the Super D but has very little time in the Pitts and that didn't appeal to me. Tomorrow we see.
 
I tried a Pitts after about 5 hours in a Super D. It's much more responsive which actually makes it easier to do maneuvers. Things happen so fast that it covers up your bad technique to a certain extent. The approach and landing is definitely an eye-opener though...
 
Bill1200 said:
Thanks Ken, the instructor I chose has a ton of experience, so that should help. They wanted to give me the fellow who trained me in the Super D but has very little time in the Pitts and that didn't appeal to me. Tomorrow we see.
Click to expand...
Hmmmm.... posted that on the 10th... and it's the 13th and no info... :eek:

Bill? All ok, there?
 
etsisk said:
Hmmmm.... posted that on the 10th... and it's the 13th and no info... :eek:

Bill? All ok, there?
Click to expand...
I wonder too. ????

My first ride in a Pitts wasn't all that great because the pilot wasn't all that great. And he botched several maneuvers. And it was below freezing when we went flying. And he had it trimmed for zero G when he handed it over to me. And his landing was horrible and he said very bad words when he landed it. It's all about the pilot, really. The next several times I rode along in a Pitts and flew the Pitts and fell in love with it. That was because of the pilots I flew with. :)
 
Last edited:
Yep, sorry, the instructor was sick so the lesson was postponed to this Friday. Sort of like trying to "ice the kicker" I won't let it get to me :)
 
Bill,

Relax and enjoy. It's like nothing you've flown before so there's really no way to prepare yourself. Ibold is the only pilot that I know of who picked up on the landings pretty quickly, most of us stumble around quite a bit. I know I did.

The thing I remember about my first Pitts flight wasn't the takeoff or landing, it was looking out at the wings and thinking, "Good grief, they're just little stubs!"

Enjoy!!!
 
Bill welcome to the site and enjoy the flight in the Pitts. Let us all know what you think when you're done. Also where did you find a Pitts in Nor Cal to fly???
 
Whew!! What a plane. Very exciting, and humbling as well. Very glad I went with the more experienced instructor. I'm flying out of Attitude Aviation in Livermore. Pitts S2C. The flying was wonderful can't wait for more. The landings will take some serious practice. That was eye opening to say the least. I still have the sensation of turning, looking at the monitor 6 hours later. :)
 
Very very cool, Bill. As Troy said, I'm jealous! Do you have any pictures from the day???

:needpics:
 
Bill1200 said:
Whew!! What a plane. Very exciting, and humbling as well. Very glad I went with the more experienced instructor. I'm flying out of Attitude Aviation in Livermore. Pitts S2C. The flying was wonderful can't wait for more.
Click to expand...
Good to hear that you enjoyed your flight! :yes:
 
Everskyward said:
I'm not sure if he was an aerobatics instructor or not but he flew the Waco. Do they still have it?
Click to expand...
WACO is still there and on line.

No pics other than this
n151ta.jpg
 
Bill1200 said:
The Pitts is the only plane (so far)that just plain intimidates me,
Click to expand...

As well it should. It is not your father Oldsmobile..LOL... Stay intimidated, and you'll be ok. The day you have the plane all figured out is the day she'll turn around and bite your a--.
 
Nice pic of the Pitts. Does the top wing have anhedral to it?
 
Hey Bill,

Hope you're having fun. As Budd Davison once said, there are pitts specials, and other airplanes, and the two should never be confused!!

Hope those jitters settled down once you saw just how neat these things are to fly. My day job has been flying S2A/B/S1 for a adventure flight company doing some promo work/joy riding. These things are awesome! That's all I gotta say!
These things always used to intimidate me 2-3 years ago when I was a naive 21 year old learning aerobatics in a Robin, but all they will ever do is what you ask of them, and they'll keep doing that until you decide you want to do something else. I personally find the A to be a bit more challenging to land than the B. The B that I used to fly has the MT prop on it so it is like opening a set of barndoors when you fine the pitch short finals, it just falls out of the sky. Makes it easy to land exactly where you want, the A is a bit more fidgity, but the A makes you work for your manoeuvres alot more, so that makes it more fun!

Anyone else got cool pitts experiences to share? :goofy:
 
Thanks NZ, I had a great time and am going to set up a training schedule to get checked out in it. Very expensive, so I'll only be able to fly it a couple times/month.
"Awesome", pretty much says it all.
 
Henning said:
No, that's Dihedral for when it's inverted.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Actually as I look at it again, it looks fairly neutral, but that could just be the angle of the picture, but thanks for adding that constructive comment to an honest question. :rolleyes:
 
Henning said:
As well it should. It is not your father Oldsmobile..LOL... Stay intimidated, and you'll be ok. The day you have the plane all figured out is the day she'll turn around and bite your a--.
Click to expand...

I started flying a Pitts S-2C about 4 years ago and will probably own the one I'm flying now or one like it for the rest of my flying days. There's no bad manners or quirky behavior in any part of the envelope. But, it is a plane that does exactly what you tell it to do, exactly when you tell it. It gets the reputation sited above because when you get too comfortable and forget to tell it what to do, it won't land itself. It's kinda like a really well trained watch dog. It minds really well but if you forget it's there it'll be eating the backside out of your britches.

Pitts, especially the certified aircraft, are some of the safest, well built aircraft you can fly. There's just no upset that isn't easily recoverable with a very simple and consistent technique. And if you ever are unfortunate to ball one up or go in off field, it'll protect you like nothing else I've ever flown. I'm speaking from some personal experience.
 
I had some time in the ubiquitous S2B years ago. Very well mannered when flown with accuracy. When flown with abandon, well - you'll pay for that!

The best advice I ever got from my Pitts CFI when learning was 'go around'. He would say, this plane is the best example of a 'go around' plane ever built. If you sneeze on base - go around, if you tune the wrong freq and want to change it - go around, if you have a traffic conflict - go around. Basically, every ounce of you must be focused on the approach, pattern, speeds, flare, touchdown, rollout, taxi, parking, shutdown, tiedown, drive home, crack open a cold beer, and sit in the Barcalounger. Now, you've successfully landed a Pitts.

He made me go around from everywhere in the pattern several times. You always have time to do go back and do it right, you never have time to fix what's wrong.
 
PittsDriver said:
There's no bad manners or quirky behavior in any part of the envelope. But, it is a plane that does exactly what you tell it to do, exactly when you tell it. It gets the reputation sited above because when you get too comfortable and forget to tell it what to do, it won't land itself. It's kinda like a really well trained watch dog. It minds really well but if you forget it's there it'll be eating the backside out of your britches.
Click to expand...
I would agree 100%. It is well-mannered, but it is very unforgiving of lack of proficiency or lack of attention.
 
First time in the back seat today. Botched a landing badly enough he had to take over or we were in the grass. This is going to take some doing. Do love the responsiveness though
 
If you're just starting out to master landing a Pitts, you should know that around 4 or 5 hours, you'll feel like you're starting to get it down and that's when the trouble starts. From about the 6th hour for the next few to several hours, you'll feel like this just isn't meant to happen for you. You'll be cursing yourself and the plane and wondering why you ever thought it was a good idea to attempt this. But then, somewhere between 10 and 15 hours it'll start to click and your feet will start automatically moving the way they're supposed to and you'll be in the zone. Not long after that you'll come to understand that, hey, these airplanes will handle a ton of wind and be like "What's all the fuss about?"

And THEN, one day when you least expect it you'll be wondering how many landing lights you just took out or maybe find yourself applying a red mylar tape bandaid to a wing tip. Ahem, don't ask. If you can just remember that every time you get ready to turn downwind to base to just reach up and slap yourself hard to make sure you're all there, you'll probably get by. You won't do it, of course. And you'll be right there with the rest of us browsing the aisles of Home Depot looking for that mylar tape.
 
haha, OK, I'll remember that. Tremendously humbling, landing this little turd.
 
Hey Pitts Jockeys!

I stumbled on to this website and have enjoyed reading your thoughts and experiences with them. My mid-life crisis includes the need to do some serious spins, rolls, and loops so I bought a S-1 with Ultimate Wings, fixed pitch 180 Lycoming, pressure carb, and inverted fuel and oil. So that is my "toy" and the best way for me to describe it is WOW! I expected it to be fun but it is way beyond that. I liked and agree with the quote "when a Pitts flares for landing, the airshow begins". I have about 12 hours in it so far and need to fix a couple of minor problems and start my acro training with a guy an hour away in his S-2B. It is going to be a fun summer!
 
B2Soar said:
Hey Pitts Jockeys!

I stumbled on to this website and have enjoyed reading your thoughts and experiences with them. My mid-life crisis includes the need to do some serious spins, rolls, and loops so I bought a S-1 with Ultimate Wings, fixed pitch 180 Lycoming, pressure carb, and inverted fuel and oil. So that is my "toy" and the best way for me to describe it is WOW! I expected it to be fun but it is way beyond that. I liked and agree with the quote "when a Pitts flares for landing, the airshow begins". I have about 12 hours in it so far and need to fix a couple of minor problems and start my acro training with a guy an hour away in his S-2B. It is going to be a fun summer!
Click to expand...
Welcome aboard! Keep us updated on your progress, and throw in a few videos while you're at it! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top