Speedbird744 I own one with a friend for few months now.
It was the best buy we could find for our budget.
Some
rough observations:
On light loads you'll get airborne in 500m
On MTOW it will be arround 700~800m takeoff roll (50m obst. clearance) ; it lifts at ~600m.
You get MTOW with 4 POB with light luggage at about 3~4 hours fuel (or 2/3 of its capacity)
Only major difference I have found from previous singles I have flown is the heavier aileron and rudder (on ground). Aileron heavyness is due to it's small area in relation to the aircraft's roll moment o.i. and rudder is because of the retracable nose gear I guess.
It is a very strong aircraft for its category with very good performance due to the superb 250hp Lycoming IO540.
You'll get up to FL100~110 in 17~18 minutes and cruise there at 155 Kts (TAS) burning 12~13 gals/hr.
The landing speeds are slightly higher than the average light single (73~76 Kts) and it "settles" on the runway in heavier style than others (flare does not last long).
It has crosswind component limit of 25kts.
After carefull examination of its past (8 years) we found that there were never any serious problems in regards to mechanical issues.
Indeed at
http://www.socata.org you will find a very active group of users with tech. document files, manuals, forum etc.
I was going to mention the sleak European looks but ... here's a photo album of our bird ...
http://hellasga.com/gallery/album01