With a normal cruising speed of 110 mph, and no weapons, aside from the pilot's slingshot, the L-5 was a sitting, okay, flying duck. Wait, I stand corrected, this from L-5 historian and pilot Jim Gray- "In a dive, the L-5 can do 200 mph. It is also stressed to +10.26 g's and -4.36 g's, so it was not a sitting duck by any stretch of the imagination. The L-5 could quickly dive for the deck and maneuver so tightly that it was exceedingly hard for a fighter to bring one down if the pilot was paying attention. Very few L-5s were lost to enemy fighters or ground fire."