imo, the LA-7 takes too much grief and is givin way too much credit. everyone knows its pretty good for base defense. in my opinion only, pure defender players (usually in a wirbel, who think the game is a job) use it and help to give it a bad rep. they cant help themselves but to ho everything in sight. for me, i love to use it to deack or shoot ords, radar. maybe no one wants to prep a field or town, so i go it alone. the la7 gets me there fast, has the firepower to knock out guns, and has the speed to get me home fast with ammo to spare. if a defender pops up, it will give my attack run a dogfighters chance to win. people say its overmodeled, but from my perspective, its finnicky, it takes a good amount of throttle control and angles of attack discipline to win a dogfight. you really need to fly the LA exactly as meant to be flown bc as soon as you goof youre in big trouble most likely, unless you can burn away.