I mostly fly a 160 hp Cherokee 150C (30 years) and an O-200 powered J3 (50+ years). Due to search and rescue flying many years ago, the majority of my J3 landings have been off-airport, primarily sandbars. Most of my Cherokee landings have been on grass (based at a grass strip).

The Cherokee airfoil (65 sub 2 - 415) has a very good maximum lift coefficient (around 1.35 unflapped at 18° vs 1.6 to 1.65 unflapped for the USA-35b Mod) and a very docile stall (moreso than the Cub). If I remember correctly, the Cherokee zero lift AOA is about a negative 3.75 degrees. Drag ratio for both airfoils is about the same at 15° (low 20's). I fly the Cherokee the same way I do a Cub. Short field landing performance is very good, takeoff performance, not so hot. Cherokees are prone to skidding sideways in mud and soggy grass, so I recommend using only the handbrake on those surfaces. I've flown Cherokees with Bush drooped leading edges and wingtips, and with Art Mattson's AMRD VGs (not on the same plane). I like both. I've cruised Art's 150 hp Cherokee 140 'Juliet' at over 14,000 feet in the Denver-Oshkosh Airrace, with an average 3 kt headwind, doing 903 statute miles nonstop with an hour of fuel reserve remaining at the finish line. Juliet's short field performance using Art's takeoff technique is extraordinary (for a Cherokee 140 anyway). That said, I'm not entirely comfortable in it when taking off from very short, unimproved airstrips). Again, Juliet's landing performance is great. Don't attempt a takeoff roll with the yoke in your gut though.

The basic low ground effect takeoff works well. But once we have it off well below Vs and in a high pitch attitude, we have to level quickly in low ground effect. At this slow speed, the control wheel has little pressure and can be moved quite a bit for/aft dynamically and productively to find level without touching back down.

Cary wrote:

Karmutzen wrote:Not optimal but use some judgement. Prop is close to the ground and always treat the nose gear with tender loving care. I used to fly one on gravel strips always trading weight with performance, and always had the yoke back.

Here's one on a local strip from a week ago.

Interesting asymmetrical prop modification.

Cary

The nose wheel laying on the ground and the jack on the strut may have something to do with the prop design

May have once been a Navion pilot.

With the recent talk about Cherokees in the Backcountry, I ran across this while perusing another Aviation Forum...

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/opssvs/civil-aviation-safety-alerts-2016-14.html

Here is the Forum discussion, including Posts from the Pilot of the incident Airplane:

http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopic.php?f=118&t=107961

Alan

Thread resurrection

I have a 160HP Warrior with Horton kit and gap seals/fairings. It earns its keep at a club where it is used for PPL hire and sightseeing flights.

The taper wing warrior is different to the Cherokee and my only experience of the two airfoils is between the Arrow ii and iii. The slab wing ii does appear to be a bit livelier on take off, and easier to spot land. Most Cherokee STOL discussion is around the original airfoil. The taper wing has nice handling, and is a pleasant ride, but may not be as versatile on shorter strips.

My Warrior mods seem to have helped mainly on cruise, it is an honest 120KTAS bird. It has wheel spats so used mainly on hard surface runways.

My personal ‘plane is a 90HP Super Cub, 80KTAS but designed for farm strips.

My trusty Super Cub has been sold, they are really a blue chip, as it sold in one day.

The Warrior seems to cope OK if kept light, on firm dry grass, in strips around 300m long. 95% of the strips I use meet this criteria, so no material loss of utility from the Super Cub, plus a 30-40% cruise speed improvement.The key is stick to the POH final approach speed of 60KIAS when light (63KIAS at full gross).

Other gains include ability to fly light IFR and carry up to three passengers.

This is all in low density altitude conditions, I expect the reliable Lycoming -320 with a fixed pitch propeller might be less eager with DA above 5,000’.