It impossible to say which style of plane is better as every manufacturer fudges the scale dimensions a bit here or there in order to get the flight characteristics they are looking for.

If you want a good general overview of what is best look at the TOC results.

1st: Ultimate
2nd: Extra
3rd: Yak

The rest of the fiels was pretty much all Extras. There is a reason for that as the Extras do it all well...Precision flight and 3D.

However, the Ultimate may be the best. I bet you will see a lot of them at the 2003 TOC and other big IMAC Events. The huge side area of the fuse and struts as well as the channeling and gating of the airflow over the fuse by the wings make this the best kinfe edge plane avaialbe. Side area on the CG is what you need and the ultimate has it in spades. It also has a lower wing loading due to all the surface area for better transitions from normal filght to post stall and back. It has a long tail moment for good pitch damping on low rates and on high rates the long leverage arm make it tumble very well.

Check out the Pattern threads...All of the Top F3A pilots are going to fly bipes in pattern this year!

Chip Hyde posts here from time to tims so do a search and se what he has to say.