Lucky You, It's a lovely airplane.
Anyway a few cautionary tales:
On one checkout on an AA-5B with long range tanks, the instructor asked if his buddy could come along in the back seat and I said yes. Both were stocky types and my first landing flare resulted in a stall a few knots earlier than I expected. Later review of the POH showed that we were overgross
On another AA-5A checkout in Calgary at 3500' on a nice warm Summer day, the instructor demonstrated leaning for best power before take off. Subsequent takeoff went well; on landing did standard checks including mixture full rich; did touch and go; observed gophers diving into their holes while climbing very slowly until flying over dropoff into valley
Flew into Philadelphia from Toronto; cleared customs; then departed for small field. Too fast to land on first attempt on shorter runway; second attempt managed landing because latter third of runway had a incline climbing to higher portion
Remember to adjust approach speed to gross weight after long flight.
Sadly another pilot wrote off the a/c when he forced it on the ground after approaching too fast. Do NOT land on the nosewheel.
Full flaps add a minor amount of drag, but every bit of drag is needed.
I'd advise long runways while you're getting familiar. On shorter runways, if it's not landing at the threshold, take it around.