Its a standard seat weight for a light aircraft.
Just ignore most of the crap that's used to scare folk about PA38's.
The are some out there that hate them and there are some out there that love them.
Those that hate them will tell you all sorts of crap about how they are dangerous and should have never been certifed and the rest of us will say they are a cracking training aircraft which teaches you to fly properly (not that you really need that cause your a glider pilot)
If anyone was ever to bring out a mordern Tommahawk mark III it would have to be call the "Marmite" with the rotrax engine version called "vegiemite"