are you doing ab initio instruction in a Pitts
Yup. It's not as crazy as it sounds at first. I firmly believe
in starting pilots off in tailwheel aircraft only, so that they
learn from the first lesson how to use the rudder pedals.
Problem is that if someone learns how to fly on nosewheel
aircraft, they have to unlearn the bad habits they have
picked up (ie virtually ignore the rudder pedals) which IMHO
is more than twice as hard as learning it right the first time.
This explains why so many people crash tailwheel airplanes
when they try to transition from nosewheel, and why so
many older guys (who started flying on tailwheel) don't
see what the big deal is.
Our Maule is a marvellous tailwheel trainer for ab initio
because of the improved visibility out the front, as
compared to the Pitts. But you can use the Pitts for
ab initio, given a sufficiently motivated and talented
student (done it before).