While an Extra is a lot of fun to fly, I would never spend that much money. It is such an easy airplane to fly that you really don't learn any stick and rudder skills flying it. Have fun, flying a taildragger and doing aerobatics is the most fun civilian flying that you can do.
Agreed. While I've only been up once in an Extra, it was so responsive that it made aerobatics much easier (much less finesse involved). I've flown aerobatics in a Great Lakes, Decathalon, Extra 300, and the T-34C. I enjoyed it the most in the Great Lakes (open cockpit biplane, tail dragger). That airplane was by no means easy to fly but it was tons of fun to toss around in the air. The biggest downsides to the plane were the heel brakes and complete lack of foward visibility on the ground.
The Decathalon was a close second in fun factor, but it lacks that wind in your hair feeling that the Great Lakes has. The Extra was fun, but I felt like I could have gotten myself in a lot of trouble very quickly if I pushed it too far. It climbed like a bat out of hell and had a roll rate that made me dizzy. The rudder seemed like it needed a lot of trim at the time, but after flying the T-34C, I'm not sure anything has ever needed as much rudder trim as the turboweenie did!
The T-34C....well, I didn't really enjoy the aerobatics in it. The airplane seemed too stable (with all the add-on like strakes, dorsal fin, ventral fins, etc). It was sluggish in response and seemed to demand much more finesse than the other less-stable, aerobatic planes I'd flown. The syllabus also omitted some of the best maneuvers to fly (snap-rolls, hammer heads, clover leafs, inverted spins, extended inverted flight, etc.) Some maneuvers are prohibited or limited by NATOPS, but others were apparently outside the scope of Primary aerobatics.
Like puck_11 said, find a reputable place with experienced instructors and have fun flying aerobatics!!
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