topher8707: whomever owned your plane before "upgraded" it.

Replacing the prop was a good move. However that trainer has little need of the co-pilot ( which is not standard btw ).

It's a very DOCILE flyer and the co-pilot is likely to get in the way. Remove or disable it.

Re: Fuel.

Set your timer for 10-12 minutes and you'll be fine. That plane will easily give you 16 minutes of flight time if you do not run the throttle wide open all the time.

Landings are almost trivial on the Alpha... You can line it up on the runway ( higher than with other planes... ) chop the throttle and let it glide down.

As it gets over the runway threshold, start a slow gradual flare so that you are pulling back on the elevator a bit when the plane is a foot or two off the runway. Hold the plane level and let it settle down by itself.

After I show students how to do this once or twice, they rarely ever fear still air landings or deadsticks.