Well, After staying up half the night doing finishing touches to my Dragon Lady, because I had decided that today would be the day I would Maiden her. When I got up this morning Mother Nature had other things in mind!! It was raining & blowing pretty hard. Then my flying buddy calls me & says it's gonna clear up so meet him at the field. So we go, when I get there the wind is blowing around 10 to 15 mph it's still raining off & on. Then it starts gusting well above 20mph. So I decided at least I could run some fuel thru the Saito & get it broke in. After about a 1/2 gallon she was starting to run really good & it had stopped raining for the time being and the wind had lightened back up to 10 to 15 mph again. I could see the next wave coming in, a big black Thunder-Bumper just a few miles south of us. I said it's now or never I got a small window of time before this next down pour hits, so I cut her loose & rolled out the throttle, she took to the grey skies like a big ol' bird. A couple laps around the pattern had her trimmed out as well as I could in the wind so I brought her around for a slow speed approach to see how well she would slow down & how well she would behave in the wind on final. She slowed & behaved so well I just went ahead & set her down for a touch & go nice & smoothe. This is a very well behaved airplane for my first Tail-Dragger/Low-Wing. I flew her around a bit more did a few loops & rolls, by that time the Thunder-Bumper was upon us so I brought her back around & set her down as soft as I could & with the increasing wind she just floated right in & sat down just as pretty as ya please & stopped right in front of me so I could get her out of the rain & back under the shelter of the pits.

I know I should have had someone with more experience with me for her Maiden flight, but I new she was ready & I new this time that I was ready as well.
All in all I said Gary & I had a pretty great day for it being in the middle of a storm with flood warnings all over the valley!! Didn't know about the flood warnings until I got home & turned on the news.[&:]

So if anyone happens to be wondering if the Dragon Lady makes for a good #2 plane as well as the 4*, or the Venture or some of the other favorite #2 type planes, the answer IMO is a definite yes!! Given the adverse conditions in which I maidened her I couldn't ask for a more well behaved airplane, sh'e now my new favorite.