Rothmans and Marlboro
embarking on a search for information about the Stolp Acroduster Too, I happened upon this thread. I was so intrigued, I decided to add my humble piece of information.
In 1979, whilst beginning my PPL at Teesside, I was smitten by a Rothmans Pitts S2A weaving its way along the taxyway. A little like Toad from Wind in The Willows, all else was completely forgotten until this thing of beauty passed by. I wanted one!
About the same time as I gained my PPL, I heard that Rothmans had decided to withdraw their sponsorship of the team and the operating company, Anvil Aviation, was to shut down its operation at Teesside. During 1981, Bob Thompson was temporarily based at Teesside and frequented the Cleveland Flying Club. During one of his visits to the club I asked him if it would be possible to have some aerobatic instruction from him in the Pitts he had retained. There followed about five hours instruction, with me, as happy as a dog with two wotsits, finally being supervised through a basic sequence of loops, rolls of the top, slow rolls, fourpoint rolls, stall turns and cuban eights, all at quite a low level. Then Bob showed me a similar sequence how it should be done and at a considerably lower level! Bliss!
I'll never forget some of the interesting things we got up to, with and without smoke.
The aircraft I flew in was G-BGSE and I think it was virtually brand new. Many years later, for my 40th birthday, I treated myself to a session of aerobatics with Alan Cassidy at White Waltham. The aircraft was, as I recall, G-TIII. What I didn't know then was that it was G-BGSE re-registered.
Having had a long period away from flying, I decided in 2004 to return to chase my dream of flying aerobatics and acquired myself a Pitts S1, G-OKAY. After several hours of re-acquainting myself with tailwheel aircraft and being checked out in an S2, I fulfilled my 25 year old dream and took to the air in my very own Pitts. Dreams can often turn into nightmares and mine did so on this occasion. I made several mistakes which culminated in a crash landing on my first flight. Yes, I was the twit who damaged the ex - Marlboro Pitts S1. I'm now flying another aerobatic biplane and one day I will have another Pitts. Next time, however, it will be the one I should have had, an S2A. The dream hasn't died.
Several years ago, I contacted Rothmans and acquired some copies of photographs of the team. They are similar to those that have been posted, so I don't think they would contribute anything new. Something that might be of interest, however. Around 1979 - 1981, I believe one of the team's aircraft suffered an engine problem and had to carry out a forced landing. I think Brian Lecomber was the pilot. I'm sure there was a photograph of the aircraft inverted on the ground published in the Northern Echo. One day, when I have little else to do, I might search this out.