stevo41300

AW makes great airplanes, albeit a bit on the heavy side for all out 3D. That being said, the newer QB models are much lighter. I guess they are about as expensive as the PilotRC. But their quality is second to none

PilotRC is much lighter, you may need to reinforce a couple of points. They make great flying airplanes though. Pilot uses Oracover covering as against Ultracote on AW. There are pros and cons of each but there is no real differentiating factor

If you want to save some money, you can look at Goldwing / Redwing. Customes support on Redwing is better. They came from the same factory. Like PilotRC, you may need to reinforce a couple of places but they are much lighter and therefore better flying

Regardless of what airplane you take, you should go over all the joints with thin CA followed by thick CA in case of any visible gaps

Ameyam