Diana-2 - master-piece or flop?

" this thread is about s/n 3 or higher;"

There is a very good report on another ship in the US, which I assume
is SN3 or higher and reports nothing of rumors that you are passing
on.

From Bill Liscomb's report on his ship:

Off tow the fun really begins! It
is easy to fly and the roll rate is downright
snappy. As with most flapped ships,
as the flaps go farther down, the adverse
yaw goes up. But at normal climb/cruise
settings it is not noticeable and control
harmony is good. I haven't flown with
other ships very much, so I can't claim
any kind of remarkable thermalling performance.
I do know this thing has
climbed out of situations where my previous
glider, a 304CZ, would have had
problems. The flying weight of the Diana 2
(without water ballast) is about 25 pounds
heavier than the empty weight of the 304CZ! Empty weight of my Diana 2
with instruments, battery, oxygen, etc., is 433 lbs.
Then, there is the glide. Unreal! I'm still having trust issues with
the glide computer. It seems impossible that a 15m ship
has legs like this! The factory provides a nice sheet of linear graphs
showing flap settings for speeds at different wing loading. The
idea with the flap charts is you cut them out and stack them together
with a glue stick. As you dump water, simply peel off charts
until you get to your current wing loading. The correct flap setting
is mandatory to get the best performance from this ship. In
March of 2007, I did get to see what a load of bugs does. I checked
out my black, fuzzy leading edges, then set the glide computer to
20% bugs and did a 30 mile final glide. I got back to Warner very
high, dialed the bugs back to zero, and it showed my actual arrival
altitude.
I've done one flight with water
ballast. I put in 43gallons (344 lbs)
plus another 12lbs in the tail, which put
me at just under 1,000lbs (1102 lbs is
the maximum). This gave a wing loading
of 10.6 lbs sq ft. (the dry wingloading
is about 6.7 lbs sq ft). Once off
tow, the water transforms the glider
into a rocket. I felt like I was strapped
inside a runaway locomotive. I flew on
August 29th, 2006, a great day in So-
Cal, and SeeYou showed two segments
over 170 miles with no turns and average
speeds 113 and 116mph.
Landings are easy. I use the
+21 flap setting rather than the +28
because of the wind we usually have at
Warner Springs. This setting also increases
aileron effectiveness while
dealing with the normal crosswind
shear, thermals and turbulence on final.
Wheel landings are the norm - touch
down, add full spoilers, put flaps full
negative, hold the tail off, roll to a stop.
The Diana 2 is small and light, both in the air and on the ground. It
is a total blast to fly. Soaring in Southern California is
unique in that a pilot can encounter several different air masses in
one flight. Without water ballast, the Diana 2 is very capable of
handling these conditions. It does very well in small, weak thermals
as well as the big rowdy stuff, and has an amazing glide over a
wide speed range. When it gets good, simply add water. Lots and lots
of water...