My maiden was white knuckle all the way. Anything over 1/4 throttle was to fast. The controls scared you to death on low settings. I ended up cutting them way down for the second flight. Even then it was very twitchy at over 1/4 throttle. On day one, I swear that it would do three rolls a second. A click of trim was to much. Man that plane was twitchy. Then came the bad part. The covering is cleary yellow/orange color. More than a couple hundred feet away and you can't tell up from down front from back, It's a yellow blob with a mind of it's own.
Without trying, I spent a good deal of the flight inverrted. The good thing was the it would do an inside or outside loop with w three foot radius. I got it down on the ground with two really good landings. By that time, I was so constrated on the plane that I think if a gun had gone off besides me, I wouldn't have heard it. Total flight time of about 5 minutes over two days. I'm going to recover it and see if I can edge into this 3D stuff.
To sum it up, the giles you are looking at is by the same company. I would expect the construction to be like the Fun Star. Very light, 4 1/2 lbs with 6 oz of lead. I also expect will initally be a real hand full.
Sounds like my Hot Stik. I have to be in the right mood as it is certainly not a relaxing way to drill some holes in the sky for a soothing after-work flight at sunset. More like a knife-fight in a dark alley. As you say: you have to have 100% concentration and focus. On high rates I can do rolls faster than thay can be counted and it will loop in a fuselage length.
The Phoenix has A LOT less control surface and looks to be a suitable choice for a third plane, though I have never seen one in person. It is going to be a neutral flier (no help from design stability but responsive) and one that must be flown and "kept ahead of" all through the flight. That's a wonderful thing for aerobatics. If you try to react to it you'll be too late. If you're up to that it might be a good third model.