The Cherokee

Our flying club has a Piper Cherokee 180. I have wanted to get checked out in it for a while. weather & maintainance kept me out of it in October, but on November 1, I finally passed the check ride.On the first takeoff i pulled back firmly like it was a 172, promptly over rotated and nearly stalled . After the usual stalls turns and slow flight we returned for a few landings mostly T&G's. the final no flap one was the only greaser. The CFI signed my log & recorded 8 landings. Tuesday evening , needing to pay dues at both my flying clubs i drove to S50 , left and envelope in the box, then grabbed the Cherokee keys. Wary of the powerful 360 mill up front, I used 25 degree flaps and was very gently pulling the bird off the runway. After establishing a stable climb @ 300 fpm for about a second as it gathered speed, I eased the yoke back a bit and was rewarded with 1000 fpm climb @ over 100 mph. I had been wary of the winds, Sea was 12 knts RNT 11 knts, but BFI only 3, S50 6 and PLU calm. I figured there were winds just above the surface that seatac got cause it is up on a plateau, and RNT is on the water and gets a lot of wind. Things were smooth up to about 900', then it started really rockin'. There must have been shear layer between the calm surface and the aloft winds. Holding back, I throttled down to about 120 mph , made my radio calls and was told I was number two, for a straight in on 31R. I was a bit high at 1/2 mile , but the sink rate of the Cherokee corrected that for me and I added a touch of power to reach the numbers. I love those manual flaps, why did they go to electric I wonder? I made A-4 and called for NE parking. When I fired up after paying my tab at Alt Air, I noticed I was still on tower. HMMM ,... He did tell me to contact ground, I had selected 121.9, but i forgot to punch the flip flop. the Controller was nice, when I called in on tower he cleared me to taxi without a reprimand. Using a regular takeoff I again gently broke ground then steepened the climb, the power of the 180 had me 200 feet high entering the downwind at 120 mph. I was the only one around, it was late so the altitude was buffer to the neighbors below. Making a Valley departure I found myself at 1200' over Southcenter mall at nearly 140mph, needing to slow for the rough air. a year ago I would have been a stressed out white knuckled wreak. Now I guided my craft with my fingertips of one hand, as it rocked and yawed, only concerned that the general direction was south bound. I have always been a high wing guy, but that is by default. I had never flown in a low wing single. I like the Cherokee, but it might be the horse power more than the position of the wing.