I flew the ARV when I was doing my PPL and found that it was a revelation after the 152.
Good points:
1. Lovely handling.
2. Stick not a yoke.
3. Great visibility.
4. Reasonably quiet.
5. Comfortable seats (for a 15 stone 6 footer).
6. Decent cruise.
Bad points:
1. Central brake handle adjacent to the throttle operating on both wheels. Strange at first but easy to get used to.
2. You enter the cockpit from in front of the wing due to the shoulder mounting. Again, feels a bit odd but you quickly get used to it.
3. Take off run with two chunky chaps and fuel on a warm day could be "interesting". Operated out of Popham, 800 ish m of grass from memory with trees at the end, though care had to be taken with the fuel load on a hot day.
4. No heater which is acceptable in a 60-year old design like the Auster but unforgiveable in a relatively recent design.
5. Poor ventilation. The big canopy which gives such wonderful visibility turns into a pressure cooker on a hot summer day.
I don't recall the instructor pre-mixing the two stroke oil. I thought it was in a separate tank and it was a metered supply to the fuel tank but I wasn't paying that much attention to be honest.
One of our instructors had a crankshaft failure but managed to put her down with no further damage. This aircraft (G-OTAL) became the first one to be re-engined with a Rotax 912. The crankshaft problem was addressed and all the ones flying now should have the AD incorporated. One was re-engined with the 100hp Wankel rotary which was a better engineering solution than the Rotax as it overcame the need to put ballast in the tail to counter the weight of the Rotax. As blue up says, a great airframe looking for a better engine, unfortunately one hasn't come along yet although an 80 hp Jabiru could be a good motor as I think it weighs about the same as the Hewland with an extra 5hp. Fitting one of the new lightweight electric vp props would also go a long way to helping the take-off performance.
Most are on a PFA Permit To Fly but there are still some on a C of A I think.
Could have been a perfect PFA aeroplane with the right engine and folding wings especially if it had been certified for the aerobatics that the handling screams out for.