By David Chiarcos, IAC 440719
So yeah, it is a homebuilt Pitts Special S-1S, built in 1993, with an IO-360. I am building the ultimate wing S1S as well, but decided I needed to fly one in the meantime. I sold my Thorp T-18 and saved up a bit more money and went out and purchased this S-1S just this past August (2019).
I came across it on barnstormers.com, it was 2400km away in Yorkton Saskatchewan, so I hooked up my trailer and drove out to get it. After driving for two days we arrived, looked the airplane over, the landing gear had some alignment issues but the previous owner had been flying it like that, I asked him to fly it to show us that it was a real airplane and so he did, one quick circuit lol. (He only flew it 10 hours in the past 6 years.)
I bought it and decided to take it for a flight before loading on the trailer. My only previous pitts experience was a couple of thrill rides in a friends Pitts S-2B, no formal checkout but what did all of the pilots do before 2 seat Pitts were available right!?
The flight went great, did a few rolls, shot 3 approaches and landed on the 4th. I was nervous but I'm glad I did it. We took the airplane apart that same day, loaded it on the trailer and headed for home. Arrived home 2 days later, went over it with a fine tooth comb, removed the landing gear, did some repairs to straighten it out and replaced the bungees, other than that it was basically good to go.
This photo shoot was done just 5 miles north of CNC4 where I keep the Pitts, the lake is called Guelph Lake. My good friend and local photographer Pat Hanna took the photos from a friends piper arrow.
I am 32 years old, I started flying 5 years ago in the ultralight category because it was affordable for me, upgraded to private license 2 years ago and never looked back. Luckily my wife Michelle is very understanding! LOL
