Jim,
Thinking foolish thoughts here...always liked the Tiger. Excellent combination of performance and handling, although it was so light on the controls that hand flying IFR got tiring.
The Cheetah was a delightful handling airplane, with six hours of gas (and two people), but climb could be anemic in warm weather. The 30 extra horsepower of the Tiger solved that problem nicely. It got up and moved. (Much more willing to go into short fields in a Tiger than a Cheetah.) The ones I flew cruised as fast as a Piper Arrow (although turning 2700 rpm, so noisy as a boiler factory) on 20 fewer horsepower, with fixed gear.
Only time I was less than enamored of the airplanes was getting in and out when it was raining hard - that got to be a comedy routine. I liked that the rear seat folded flat, so you could carry bulky stuff, but didn't like that it was below the front seats so rear pax couldn't see much. When I bought my first airplane it was a tough call between a Cardinal and a Tiger - went with the Cardinal because of cabin size (baby on the way) and ease of loading over the speed.
Warmest regards,
Rick
