ORIGINAL: 2slow2matter
My policy on retractable gear (and this comes from all of the experienced guys I've ever been associated with) is to NOT raise the gear during a maiden. Just one more thing that can go wrong. If the engine dies, you don't want to have to mess with the gear on a maiden dead stick. Also, if a gear gets stuck, the maiden landing is a bad time to deal with that. I just want to have all of the issues with the plane worked out before I throw that one in there. I want to know ALL of the characteristics that I can know before I deal with extra issues.
Sure, there may be some minor trim issues involved, but not more than maybe one or two clicks of elevator. The rest of the plane can be trimmed out easily with the gear down.
Some people want to play with all of the bells and whistles. To me, get it up, get it trimmed, make it stall a few mistakes high to see what it is going to do. Pull a loop to see if it will snap (again, very high). A couple of other housekeeping items, and get it back down in one piece. Go over everything with a fine tooth comb to make sure nothing loosened up. Re-fuel, and then start wringing it out.
OK fair enough. I still think you should use all the controls in the first flight but JMO. If the engine quits and you can't make the field the gear better be up or there will be some major repairs. Would you leave the flaps alone too, especially on a warbird?