Well, thanks for the assurances, I flew the Arrow IV for 18 hours in total and did around 26 landings including the checkout. I found that I had to pull hard to get it to leave the runway even though I set the trim for pitch up for take off then quickly used the electric trim for pitch level immediately after it left the runway. Since I hold the yoke using one thumb, index finger and middle finger, it was quite difficult to rotate and equally in the roundout and flare I was using the electric trim to reduce the yoke load. With power on, the aircraft flew very well, especially in the cruise. With power off, the nose wanted to drop and the aircraft felt very heavy. All of my landings were “firm” and I never managed even one “greaser” although I found that leaving a little power in until the flare helped with a smoother landing flare, otherwise, approach, roundout and flare all seemed to occur in very quick succession. I don’t think that a 2000’ runway would have been a problem but in the event, the runway I had intended to use was recently washed away in a storm. I was also taking off and landing the aircraft in winds gusting variously between 10 and 35kts and even in a 16kt 90deg crosswind it handled absolutely fine, probably the extra weight over an Archer helped.
Overall a nice aircraft for long flights but on balance, I prefer to fly the the Arrow II or III at least until I build up some arm muscles!