yep, the bug bit me. I had an epiphany the other day. Until you step up to a cabin class IFR platform, airplanes are worthless for any form of transportation. Therefore you should regard them as something akin to a motorcycle. The main metric should be fun. I quit trying to make it practical, and stopped thinking like an engineer. Just accept these facts and everything falls into place.
I now view doing pattern work in my 172 about the same as driving a brown wood grain paneled 6 cylinder automatic Torino station wagon in circles around the mall parking lot at 10 mph. To make it worse there is paper work involved, and I have to go over the thing with a fine tooth comb before I drive it. Then I have to push it in and out of a garage that is locked behind a security fence........sheesh.
I guess I would also consider an acro sport or EAA biplane, but my instructor insists the the S1C is what I should look for.
Inverted spins are next. This time we will be flying a decathlon.
I'm not interested in competing. I just want to learn all those forbidden corners of the flight envelope that most people never explore.
Before forking over the $$$ for an airplane, I'd go take a couple lessons in a Pitts, preferably an S2-A. It will replicate the size, power and handling of an S1-C better than one of the usual dual instruction ships, an S2-B or S2-C. You'll need a Pitts checkout anyway before any insurance company will touch that risk.
I had Pitts fever bad at one time, made worse by a friend that would let me fly (and wanted to sell me) his S1-C. I found it was a great 15 min airplane, that was about all I could stand to be in the cockpit at a time. There is the realization much like you have reached in your 172, once you have BTDT, might find that's not an area that you enjoy. And of course, if a plane is not enjoyable to fly, it will sit in the hangar.
I do like some of the larger biplanes, like a Skybolt because it's stable enough to fly 1+ hrs at a time and it is still quite capable of aerobatics. One of the plus sides of a Pitts is that you won't have any trouble selling it. Plenty of others in line with the fever and plenty of Pitts owners have realized it's not their cup of tea, which on the other side of the coin is why it's not hard to find one for sale.
