Practicing for my first aerobatic competition season so this is the first of
what will probably be many questions.

Hammerheads should be dead simple to do but I'm consistently having a
problem I can't figure out so I put it to the collective wisdom here to see
if any of you might have encountered the same.

Aircraft is Pitts S-1D. Entry speed is 160 mph. Vertical upline is fine.
No aileron needed to counteract torque, holds nice and steady. Kickover
rate at the top is OK, too. However, when I kickover, the nose starts to
gyrate so that I come out on the vertical downline having tucked under and
now PAST the vertical. It seemed like a gyroscopic problem so I thought I'd
cut the power just at the start of the kick. (bad move. Quickly chopping
power created as much of a problem as quickly gunning the throttle does - it
was a mess!). Even slowly retarding power to reduce gyro effect didn't seem
to work. Have tried upline of a little less than 90 degrees thinking mabye
I wasn't truly vertical. No change. Tried different speeds at the
kickover - 40 mph, 60 mph, 80 mph. Still get this gyratory tuckunder.
Elevator and aileron input seem to have no consistent, discernable effect.

I must be doing something wrong and plan to do some dual next week to see if
I can duplicate the problem with an instructor. But in the meantime was
hoping someone here might shed some light on the problem.

Any tips/hints/experience with this before?

All input is welcome!

Cheers-
Shawn

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