I have flown both. Well, I had the ST .90 and the UCD .46. I flew the ST .90 with a Saito 1.25 and the UCD .46 with a Saito .82.

By far the better of the two for me was the ST...period. It will do anything you want to do. 3D, pattern, IMAC practice...whatever you want. I recommend the ST .50 even though I have never flown the .50 size. I guess a Saito .82 with a 14X4 APC prop would do well for 3D on that plane.

I found, (please do not kill me for this,UCD fans), that the UCD was draggy, floaty, sloppy and stick-like. I liked the ST because is was a true flyer and was not designed to be a hover machine. The ST does far better rolling maneuvers and is VERY agile. The UCD is great at slow maneuvers because of it's enormous lift, but the cost is drag....too much drag for my taste.

The ST excels in almost every category. Durability, KE, Hover, Rolling maneuvers etc... JUST REMEMBER that type of plane needs WAAAY more than recommended throw to perform well. You will need 'way too much' power, 'way too much' throw, 'way too much' servo power and 'way too much' expo to fly this plane to it's potential. OH...and you will need fast servos too.

Properly set-up, the ST will give you far more and better practice if you are planning on moving to Giant Scale aerobats in the future. The UCD will do LOTS of stuff, but it's just not realistic practice for the bigger planes.

OK, UCD fans....let the flogging begin.

SIR, may I have another, SIR!!