Alex,
My personal suggestion would be to build some experience on the 'regular' flight school aircraft prior transitioning to the speed canard.
The moment you feel 'comfortable' on the 'regular' flight school aircraft a transition to speed canard should be no issue...
To answer you question related to the aircraft itself: the canard flies very smooth and very easy, biggest differences with regular aircraft are the stall characteristics and the landing technique. Getting used to the different landing technique requires (for most SEP flyers) a certain amount of Touch&Go's or landings to be at ease (All depending pilot experience).
Speed canard requires a SEP (L) rating on your PPL license + difference training in your logbook (with a CRI/FI) for the variable pitch (VP) & retractable gear (RG), unless you did that during the PPL-course (probably not ...)
Plus some more familiarization training till you feel basically happy yourself (can be combined with the difference training VP/RG with the CRI/FI).
Especially when you operate on short runways or in crosswind, tailwind or heavy rain conditions, it can get interesting.
Just to give you an idea but without going into detail; the approach/landing will look a bit like the flapless approach they will try to teach you during the PPL course. Let's say an 80 kts approach speed followed by a minimum flare (to decrease the sinkrate) prior touchdown.
In Mengen (Germany) they should still have the Speed Canard (Donau Air) for Training/Einweisung (rest of the flight school will close soon).
Good luck with the PPL training and in the meantime (if I were you) keep a good focus on the flapless landing(s)
.
Davy
