Sam, I remember Dave Pinegar and his Saito powered MW Extra as well. You are 100% right, back in the late 90's, the MW Extra was a fairly dominant design and in the right hands, it was hard to beat. I did reasonably well with mine, but I was still coming up to speed on things at the time and I was the limiting factor much more so than the airplane. The MW Extra helped me get 4th at the 98 Nats in Toledo in Advanced, ahead of several big gas planes, one of which was flown by a former Nats winner in Masters Pattern. The point is, it's a good design and if set up right, it can be competitive. I realize it's not going to be a top pick these days, but it's still a good airplane. Good enough for to have recently dusted mine off to get it back in the air for some relaxation this fall, now that the pattern contest season is over here in D1.