Peter Dohm wrote:
A 90 year-old pilot is having breakfast at the airport with his son.
"I've got to get my medical next week. If Doc don't pass me I'm gonna
get in the Super Cub and fly out over the ocean til it runs out of
gas."
"Dad, NO!... Not the Super Cub."

Priorities!!! The stuff of life :-)))
Dudley Henriques
When I was young, there was an old gent who kept a Pitts Special in a
hangar
at our local airport. He didn't no longer flew it (that was 30+ years
ago)
and once told me that he planned to take one last flight--when he no
longer
felt able to care for himself at home--and land it straight down on the
spinner out in the swamp.

The little plane was a thing of beauty ... nearly alive ... I was
horrified!
I am still not sold on his (proposed) methodology,
but now, I can just barely manage a shrug. (sigh)

A pilot's Pitts is a real personal piece of equipment for sure, (sort of
like flying while inside a red prophylactic actually) I don't think ole'
Curtis down there in Homestead would have approved much if one of his
birds ended up being used for a lawn dart though. A real bad end for a
real good airplane.

Gosh Dudley, you must be psychic. His Pitts was red! :-)

It's a shame ol' Curtis is gone, and I never got to meet him.

Peter

:-)))))
Actually, there was a time when most of the Pitts' out there were red.
It was Curtis' favorite color. Being painted red also helped them to be
seen both as a safety factor and in the air show demonstration scenario.

I flew a red S1S for show work on occasion. I'd say it was around the
70's that the airplane started showing up in other colors.
Naturally, color was and is a personal choice, but I believe red will
always be the color for the majority of Pitts' flown in the world.
Dudley Henriques