Yeah, it was a real rocket (engine thrust - about 18k, airframe fueled weight - about 17k with a pattern ride fuel load) and the first ride put you on your back so fast that you didn't really grasp it. The trick was to get it going straight up from standing start to vertical right over the middle of the runway (about 3000 ft from brake release to accelerating vertically), then be able to control it so you recovered without winding up on your back at low airspeed and lose it inverted. You could actually accelerate vertcally until you reached max limit airspeed, and even farther if you wanted to tear the wings off! However, the scariest part of that first ride was when the IP decided to go look at some rental property that he wanted to buy...suddenly there we were about 15 miles SE of D-M at about 100 ft in the -CT hopping over tree lines and wires while he tried to find the apartments. I was "concerned" to say the least, but he didn't seem to think it was a big deal. We went over some trees and pushed back down and wound up staring eye-to-eye with a guy in a big tractor on the rising terrain. We pulled up and he bailed out the side. I couldn't believe it. There was a slightly different attitude among some of those old guys in the 60s and early 70s! Luckily, I flew my next rides with Hector and it was a bit more sane, and we never heard about it from anybody (police, FAA, newspapers, etc.).