Having myself gone from a big nose 150 (no Superbat, however) to a 180 hp Cardinal, I can fully understand where Royson is coming from. The Red Bird is like stepping from a Miata to an BMW 528. Both capable and fun, but the luxury of the latter is just hard to live without. I miss my Cardinal greatly. The Cherokee 180 is a great little airplane, but for comfort and efficiency, the Cardinal was stellar (I guess that's a Blue Jay isn't it?).
I was looking in my log books and my flight from Hermiston to Clinton several years back showed an average fuel burn of 6.7 gph at 13,500 feet, and I ran on average about 125 knots. Normal cruise was 123 knots in mine at 75% power. It didn't climb out as well as the 150/150 (especially on hot days), but it was more than adequate and had a tired engine (the reason I sold it).
Good on ya Royson. I am thinking of selling my Cherokee too, but can't get enough money out of it to justify doing it right now.
