Oops..! Can I try that again?

[Hagar]

[quote]I once saw Ed Mahler, a stunt pilot from, I believe, Pennsylvania, fly his Pitts S-1 wide open, inverted, putting out a huge trail of smoke, between two poles connected by a ribbon, about 20 feet from the ground... He must have been nearsighted .

I've probably got a Kodachrome of that somewhere...

[DougC-3]

What Mahler did was similar to the top pic, but upside down .  What really struck me though was a piece of paper he had taped to his panel with 10 or 12 little squiggles and curlicues indicating the order in which he did his stunts.  It might be suicide to get them in the wrong order...  you could come in for a landing upside down or worse

I know I've got a picture of the panel somewhere... someday when I have time to get less digitally challenged, I'll post it .

[Hagar]

I remember seeing a clip of a famous female aerobatic pilot doing something similar. It was on one of these TV programmes that take great delight in showing other people's misfortunes. I'm sure many people here have seen it. I think it was getting dark & unfortunately she went a tad too low & "landed" inverted. I think she walked away without a scratch.