My friend built a Christen Eagle, and it took three years, 3000 hours, and was a labor of love. He now flies an Extra 300XS, and the Eagle sits in the corner of his hangar. He does not want to sell it for fear of liability issues as the builder.
According to him, it has better visibility than any of the two place Pitts, and you do sit higher relative to the edge of the canopy. It still does the short coupled, narrow track hippity hop on landing, but is a lot lighter than an S2B or C, with less vertical performance. It can also cost a lot less than a Pitts.
As discussed in previous threads, the monoplanes still have a significant competitive advantage at advanced and unlimited, and probably a lesser advantage at intermediate. Among the monoplanes, the Extra is also a comfortable cross country machine, with reclined leather seats, better visibility from the rear seat, and a lot easier to land since it's so heavy.
For a fun airplane, there's nothing like an aerobatic plane. There's no way to ever become complacent or bored when pulling or pushing G's and trying to perfect aerobatic figures, and you can still use the plane to go for the 100 dollar hamburgers.
Must be another reason for the comment. The problem with this thread is Seth will wait a few weeks and then come back and claim "he" designed and test flew the prototype.
