Excellent thorough write up and very nice finish job on the airplane. Looks clean and very well done. I have a good friend with over 30+ years building experience who made a similar comment.
Absolutely worth every penny for it's LOOKS.
I could NOT build AND cover for the price tag it carries as a true ARF.
I like the landing gear struts for added strength. I didn't have any problems with this on Pitts-1 and it weighed close to 20 lbs. Pitts-2 weighs in at 18 lbs. I used the 2 aileron configuration on Pitts-1 ( without any real issues except for a bit of slop in the slave rods) and went with four Futaba 9405's on Pitts-2. Only thing I did a bit different was to pin and fibergalssd the firewall. Would suggest you keep a close eye on this with the gasser. Plenty of thread reports of vibration causing cracks in the firewall with separation. I also added tristock inside and out. Just a personal preference. It is a great looking airplane especially when you consider that it's an ARF. I would recommend the smoke system. Really adds a nice flying touch. Congratulations on a successful project. I hope to do the maiden on Pitts 2 this weekend. All finished, checked out and ready for the maiden flight.