Sticks are great for maneuvers, but I do like a yoke for any kind of cross-country. I like to have my lap free to keep charts, etc. in front of me. We did all our work in Diamonds and Pipers.

As for the throttle, the Diamonds have a nice long track, so going from idle to full power is smooth. Also, since the throttle track is longer, power changes are more noticeable in terms of how much you need to move the throttle lever to get your desired change. I thought it was beneficial for students to see; nice, but not life-altering. On a Piper, you only had to nudge the lever a bit to get good adjustments, but it was easy to put in or take out more power than desired if I didn't remember.

Again, very much just a personal opinion, but I always felt the Piper's felt a little more solid and stable than their Cessna counterparts - not a huge difference, but perceptible to me. As to why - in recent years Cessna has appeared to be the more stable company, I'm sure that alone causes those who make purchasing decisions to lean that way.

That is what happens when you strap wings on a cinder block.

never flown a low wing airplane, am still trying to figure out the difference .... i think both plane has its on dos and donts .

example traffic watch, on a cessna u can see whats coming from the bottom not from the top. and on the piper u can see the top traffic not the bottom once unless u have a tcas.

I would prefer an airplane with wings on the middle of ur side window, so you can see both top and bottom :)

Yeah, I read that one of the biggies is that you feel ground effect noticeably sooner in a low-winger and tend to float a little longer on landing, so you have to resist the urge to flare. I think this is the biggest thing I notice when going from flying a Cessna to a Piper.

is that means you have flare lil high to bring it down?

If you're training old folks with limited mobility a high-wing airplane is probably easier to enter/exit.

The one thing that I have really noticed about flying both is the Cessna's like to float, or bounce or anything undesirable if not done correctly. I like the Pipers because when you land, you land. (at least I do) I just believe that the Pipers just seem to want to be on the ground when you really want them too. Now I have only flown an Arrow and I know that wants to land, not too sure about a Cher. My big thing is too get the plane on the ground and the Piper sure does accomplish that task easier. More fun too!

more ground effect = less lift
 

Ground effect is the key design difference between these two airplane designs from an aerodynamic perspective. Vortices issue from the wingtips of all airplanes- the wing puts kinetic energy into vortices coming from the wings. On the low wing design the vortices are closer to the ground which has the effect of nullifying their action. This in turn works it way back to air circulating around the wing and you get less lift. It nullifies the lift to some extent. So the low wing is more sensitive to ground effect, and this is a bit counterintuitive or confusing because we all know that ground effect also equates to less induced drag, which is also true. On landing the low wing airplane gets in ground effect, lift drops off quickly, and it settles aggressively. It's more forgiving when you attempt to land a bit hot than a Cessna, because the latter you find yourself having to go a bit farther down the runway to let the circulation effect around the wing settle down. In a Piper, you can achieve a touchdown target a little better because as soon as you flare it wants to drop and stay put. On the other hand, the heavier sensitivity to ground effect is not ideal for short field operations as someone mentioned. You have to go faster to generate the same lift. The reduction in drag is not enough to counteract the reduction in lift.

Piper's are better looking, but I really prefer Cessna for the extra. They seem harder to land (especially in crosswinds) which is actually good thing.

But then again, if you are bringing some friends on a flight, I'd rent a Piper for the better performance.