Thanx Gengis for this and the reply on the Testers forum. JAA do not disclose their references, but it is clear from feedback that they think Va is at all times the basic figure of Vs times root n. My worry about the max/min definition arose from the fact that at higher speeds you can overstress the aircraft by pulling, and that seems to negate the whole idea of Va. Then there is the example diagram in JARs that clearly shows an example Va lower than the stall/n limit corner.
Big problem for us is that we want to teach the real life truth, but also need to get the students past the examiners, which sometimes means teaching cr**.
But hey, who said it was easy
Dick W