Cool looking airplane with a strange planform. Did it fly well?
Did it fly well? Good question. I don't know. I was a fresh-caught Ltjg with cottage cheese for a brain and little to compare it to, other than the T-2 or T-34.
But it was fun! A real combat aircraft that had served in Korea as the straight-winged Panther. With the Cougar's swept wings, it was supposed to be supersonic – or maybe just trans-sonic fighter.
It was underpowered with a centrifugal flow, rather than an axial flow or fan engine. Indeed, a Grumman 'Lead Sled'. But with knots, it was really maneuverable! It performed well, air-to-air and air-to-mud, low-level, around the boat, etc.
It had strange controls – "flaperons" and "flapperettes" rather than ailerons as I recall. In the event of a flame out, there was a T-handle you pulled to fire a shotgun shell in the engine to re-light. And if you lost hydraulics, the flight controls were actuated by compressed air, stored in many accumulators. (Didn't leave much room for excessive control movement)
One of our FAM flights was to see if we could get it supersonic. We would climb to 39,000 ft. or so – which took forever. Then we would go to Mil power (didn't have AB) and commence about a 40-degree dive. Some guys went above Mach 1, but I didn't on my hop, as did most. That was the whole entire, syllabus hop. (Tough to get an "above" or "below" on that hop.)
We once had a guy punch out at the 90 because of a flameout. The pilotless F-9 bellied into some flat, muddy ground. That same aircraft was flying 6 weeks later. Grumman Iron Works Aircraft!
So did it fly well? Good enough to train this old guy and give him some great flying fun. And his Wings of Gold!