I maidened the Pitts and I'm pleased to report it went pretty well. I was concerned that the little wheels might struggle on grass but she took off fine, tracked straight and lifted off on about 3/4 power.
Full throttle gives startling acceleration but for mild aerobatics 3/4 throttle is plenty and for stooging around half throttle is fine. Trim wise it was pretty close, no aileron trim required and just a few clicks of up elevator which is to be expected given the symmetrical airfoil and zero-zero rigging angles. Needs a bit more downthrust as full throttle pulls the nose up into a vertical climb pretty quickly.
The U/C legs are a bit soft and anything other than a perfect 3-point landing bends the legs out and the prop strikes dirt.. so some carbon fibre U/C legs will be the next purchase.
I'm very happy
Steve