The Arresti will rock sportsman, I've seen it myself. I watched a guy wax 2 meter planes with one a couple years ago.

If you want to 3d, the arresti isn't the plane. But then neither is pretty much any pattern plane. There are compromises, but you wouldn't race Indy 500 with the family car would you? Get a plane that's designed to do what you want it to.

That being said, the CA Models Widebody, Epsilon and Zafiro will do a fairly respectable job of both pattern and 3d. The Widebody is more to the pattern side, and the Zafiro is more to the 3d side. If you want to try pattern, by all means don't worry about 3d with the same plane. The setups will be quite different and it will be touchy and difficult to lock it in around center with 3d sized surfaces. It can be done of course, but why?

-Mike