Any instructors for AA-5 familiarisation training?

[Ultranomad]

It looks like I'm finally getting an aircraft of my own, and it is an AA-5. The problem is that I've never flown one, so I need someone to give me a checkout. The aircraft is currently at Blackbushe, so Cabair seems to be a solution, but they want £66 per hour plus £60 "membership fee" (whatever it is) plus their own insurance (for which they weren't even ready to give me a quotation right away) to instruct me in my own aircraft, and this has to be booked two weeks in advance. Doesn't look right to my continental mind, or is this always this way in England?
So, are there any private instructors out here willing to do familiarisation training in a Tiger, whether in SE England or on the continent over the Channel (as I will be ferrying it to Czech Republic anyway)? I may need some help with ferrying as well.

[gijoe]

Anton,

PM sent to you.

[RatherBeFlying]

The latter are the Cheetah and Tiger that Ray LoPresti developed from the AA5 for Grumman.

They are all different in their own way.

Watch your gross weight. When I did one checkout the instructor asked if his hefty friend could sit in the back. The flare stalled out a bit sooner than expected:\

Do some landings with the fuel at minimal legal levels and work out what approach speed you want to use. Hint: the full gross approach speed will run you out of runway. Many AA5/A/Bs have come to grief in late go-arounds. Full flap does not bleed off airspeed.

You need to work this out before setting off on a long trip to a short runway.

Do Not push the nose on to the runway or allow a PIO. My favorite rental came to grief that way with another pilot.:{

Airspeed selection and control on approach is key.

[gijoe]

All very good advice above.

[englishal]

giJoe is the man to check you out on the AA5....

[Big Pistons Forever]

Anton

Congratulations on buying a great, and in my opinion very underrated, aircraft (I own an AA1). I highly recommend you join the American Yankee Association (aya.org). It is type club devoted to the AA series and for USD 35 a year will provide a wealth of good operating and maintainance information. They have a chapters in Europe so you can hook up with others if that is of interest to you. They also keep a database of Grumman experienced instructors.

[Pace]

Excellent aircraft with bags of Character, good speed and economy. Dont think you need a specific instructor to train you as they are fairly basic fixed prop fixed gear aircraft with benign handling.
Your Ferry should teach you all you need to know enroute.
Flew a couple of Tigers a number of years ago and far better than the usual PA28 spamcan.

Pace

[UKTiger]

Hi there. I am a Tiger owner and instructor based at Biggin. I can certainly do this for you a lot cheaper than Cabair, as long as your insurance covers instruction (non-ab initio). This is a standard clause in most owner insurance policies- you have to trawl the body of the policy to find it. If not, we could do it on my Tiger, but it would of course be dearer for you. Contact me at [email protected]. I can also do IMC/IR if you're interested. Congratulations on buying the best plane in its class. Nothing else comes near it.
Steve