A maiden definitely has more intensity than a normal flight. Some amount might be fear of what can happen, but other parts of the emotions are the anticipation of how well it performs or what it feels like. There are certainly many more things racing through ones mind and that can be tiring but also exhilarating.

Exhilaration is a powerful emotion that most of us enjoy from time to time. Getting a little too personal here but I had a wife once who had an addiction to make up you know what probably because it was exhilarating. Course.... she had to provoke a fight to start the process.

I think I'd be somewhat disappointed at any notion that there would be no more maiden flights (hey, I'm back to talking about airplanes).

My last maiden was a 72" Yak with a 28cc gasser and because it was an arf and both the wing and stab were on tubes and studs, I didn't check the incidences. It required a lot of up trim and was exciting because when trying to crank in up... a moments distraction would see it dive briskly towards the ground. A friend came to my rescue and hit the trim button for me. More often a plane has a climbing issue that is easier to deal with.

I'm thinking that was more scary than exhilarating.