Dave,
I always liked the short wing Pipers a lot. While they will descend nicely, they also climb quite nicely. The Pacer/Tripacer series were fast for their power, although the cabin was, shall we say compact. Handling was straightforward and honest. Haven't flown a Pacer, but the Clipper, its predecessor, was a true delight and very honest on the ground.
My brother owned a Colt. Amazing airplane, more space inside than a 150 and outperformed it on roughly the same horsepower while having more endurance. His was rigged so that if you got the wheel all the way back to the stop in the flare you would almost invariably just roll it on. Sometimes I wished it had flaps, as despite the reputation for sink rates on short wing Pipers, the 150 would approach more steeply with full flaps. It was a great little airplane until the day it was holding short for takeoff at Des Moines and a DC-10 blew it over and turned it into twisted Colt remains.
Best regards,
Rick
