I have never flown an Alpha but after hanging around the field for most of the training nights last year, I have been impressed. Only ever seen a real problem with one. On a low pass over the field it rolled inverted and dove into the ground after a radio failure. He sent the plane to horison who traced the problem to a faulty switch and they overnighted him a new plane. And the landing gear are very tough, watched one put its wheels into a superstar 40 head on (50-60 mph closing speed) and it only loosend the nose wheel. The superstar made it back ok too btw. The really funny part is that these "2" alphas are one in the same! Poor Sandy has no luck.