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Avian CHEETAH 160 Owner's Manual

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CHEETAH 160
Owner's Manual
BHPA certificate of airworthiness
numbersCheetah 160 Race (Mylar / Matrix):
0106161
Serial Number
......................
Before flying your glider please read this manual completely, check all your battens
against the batten profile (adjusting them if necessary) and do a thorough pre-flight
check.
AVIAN LTD.

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  • Page 1 CHEETAH 160 Owner's Manual BHPA certificate of airworthiness numbersCheetah 160 Race (Mylar / Matrix): 0106161 Serial Number ...... Before flying your glider please read this manual completely, check all your battens against the batten profile (adjusting them if necessary) and do a thorough pre-flight check.

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual Stretfield Bradwell Hope Valley S33 9JT Tel (01433) 621308 Fax (01433) 621753 E-mail avian@hanggliding.co.uk www.hanggliding.co.uk CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.................3 PLEASE NOTE................3 OPERATING LIMITS..............4 SPECIFICATIONS...............4 RIGGING THE CHEETAH............5 PRE-FLIGHT CHECKLIST............8 FLYING THE CHEETAH ............10 POST FLIGHT INSPECTION............11 DE-RIGGING................11 VB. (VARIABLE BILLOW)............13 VB.
  • Page 3 Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual TROUBLE SHOOTING...............22 OWNERSHIP................24 APPENDIX: LOSING THE KINGPOST- THE DIFFERENCES.25 APPENDIX: GLIDER OPTIONS..........27 APPENDIX: ASSEMBLY DRAWINGS........28 APPENDIX: CHECKING WASHOUT........32...

  • Page 4: Introduction

    Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual INTRODUCTION Congratulations on your purchase of an Avian Cheetah. The Cheetah represents the state of the art in high performance, kingpost-less design. We hope that you will experience many hours of safe and enjoyable flying on your new hang glider.

  • Page 5: Operating Limits

    Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual OPERATING LIMITS 1. Minimum pilot rating: Advanced pilot. 2 Manoeuvres: 1. Aerobatic manoeuvres are not permitted. 2. Pitching the nose up or down more than 30 degrees from the horizontal is not allowed. 3. Do not exceed more than 60 degrees of bank 4.

  • Page 6: Rigging The Cheetah

    Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual RIGGING THE CHEETAH The glider can either be rigged flat on the ground, or with the glider supported on its control frame*. The latter should only be attempted in light wind conditions but is useful in confined spaces or where the terrain is likely to cause soiling or damage to the sail.
  • Page 7 Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual 9. The glider can now be tensioned. Remove the split ring from the special bolt located through the rear of the keel tube. Using the attached elastic cords initially and then holding the webbing, pull the cross tube restraint webbing back.
  • Page 8 Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual 3. Open the wings slightly then walk the wings out to about three quarters of their full extension. As before the wings should ideally be walked out together. If you are rigging by yourself move alternate wings gradually apart.

  • Page 9: Pre-Flight Checklist

    Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual PRE-FLIGHT CHECK-LIST Detailed pre-flight checks must be carried out during assembly. Always use the same assembly and packing procedure which will help to eliminate mistakes. After rigging, a pre-flight check should always be carried out. The following must be checked: 1.
  • Page 10 Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual leading edge bolts are secure. 17. Check that the keel is horizontally straight with a slight downwards bow. Check that the tensioning strop is secure, correctly fitted and that the split ring is in place. As shown in the earlier diagram.

  • Page 11: Flying The Cheetah

    Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual Stall The Cheetah recovers quickly from stalls but will lose height doing so. A wing close to the stall becomes difficult to control. For both these reasons the glider should be flown with sufficient airspeed close to the ground, hill or any other aircraft or obstacles.

  • Page 12: Post Flight Inspection

    Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual Landing the Cheetah The secret of a good landing is: getting prepared for landing while you are still high, · good field selection · followed by a precise approach with plenty of airspeed. · Always plan your landings from high up, check that the VB. is in the fully released position and make sure you can get your feet out of your harnesses well before landing.
  • Page 13 Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual 9. Zip the bag up and store the glider dry, in a cool, dry and dark place. De-rigging the glider upright on the keel This is useful in confined spaces or where the terrain is likely to cause soiling or damage to the sail. It is essentially the reverse of rigging the glider on the keel: 1.

  • Page 14: Vb. (Variable Billow)

    Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual VB. (VARIABLE BILLOW) The variable billow (VB. sometimes called variable geometry VG.) is used to change the flying characteristics of the glider while in flight. As mentioned else where in this hand book, when the glider is rigged the VB. cord should be threaded through the cleat on the speed bar and knotted.

  • Page 15: Tuning Instructions

    Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual VB. Set-up The VB. on your glider should be factory set. However the ropes do stretch a little and it may be necessary to adjust the ropes to retain full VB. Travel. NEVER ALTER YOUR GLIDER OR VB. IN SUCH A WAY AS TO INCREASE THE MAXIMUM TENSION OR REDUCE THE MINIMUM TENSION.
  • Page 16 The compression strut should be tighter and has thicker elastic but increasing tightness reduces handling. The rest should be of medium to light tension. Other tuning should NOT be carried out without reference to Avian Ltd., or an approved dealer.

  • Page 17: Battens And Batten Profile

    Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual BATTENS AND BATTEN PROFILE The Cheetah battens should be maintained in the correct profile. Failure to do this could result in adverse flying characteristics. Batten Material The nose batten and compression struts are made from 1/2" OD 6082 aluminium alloy tubing.

  • Page 18: Maintenance

    Avian recommend that the Cheetah has a factory inspection every year or 100 flying hours which ever is the sooner. This is a sensible precaution to take and is offered by Avian at special prices in the months of December and January. An additional benefit of the strip down is that the latest upgrades can be fitted sometimes for free.
  • Page 19 Any cuts or tears at critical areas such as the trailing edge, sail fixing points or similar high load areas, must be repaired at either the Avian factory or an Avian approved workshop. Small damage to panels, leading edge covers etc., can be repaired with proprietary self adhesive tape. We define small damage as abraded holes no more than 10mm diameter and small cuts no longer than 15mm.

  • Page 20: Repair

    The Cheetah airframe is deceptively simple, but like all aircraft requires skilled and qualified attention. We do not recommend self repair or re-assembly by other than Avian or Avian nominated repair agents. No replacement parts should be fitted unless they are factory supplied and identified as such. When ordering spares always quote your glider serial number (make a note of it if you have to replace your keel.

  • Page 21: Transportation

    Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual TRANSPORTATION The wing must always be transported inside its bag, well packed and with all the protective padding in place. The zip on the bag can be placed down to prevent entry of rainwater. During transportation, or when stored on slings, the wing must be supported at its centre and at two points not more than one metre from each end.

  • Page 22: Transportation By Air

    Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual This is basically the reverse of removal of the leading edges: 1. Open the sail out and remove padding from the end of the inner leading edge. 2. Check the 5” lines on the inner ends of the outer leading edges. (These are marked with felt tip and give visual confirmation that the leading edge is fully engaged.)

  • Page 23: Storage

    747 over it you will be able to see the tyre marks on the box. If you are lucky you may have a purpose made box or bag. (Avian make an armoured short pack glider bag. It speeds up the process of short packing and provides good protection. If you are making more than one trip it is a small price to pay for peace of mind.
  • Page 24 Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual thumb pressure .) The VB. is difficult to pull on or fails to release If instruments are attached to the right hand upright it may interfere with the VB. operation. The VB. cord runs down the rubber back of the right hand upright. Crushing the rubber back impedes the movement of the cord.
  • Page 25 Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual damage. The glider is heavy or "strange" in pitch The glider is heavy or handling badly despite the hang point apparently being in the correct position. The backup hang loop might be caught in such a way that it interferes with the main loop when moving the bar (in or out depending on the position of the backup loop relative to the main loop.) Free the backup loop so...

  • Page 26: Ownership

    Wipe marks off the inside of the sail. OWNERSHIP Please notify Avian Ltd. of change of ownership and change of address. This is important so we can let you know about upgrades or in the unlikely event, recall components or gliders.
  • Page 27 Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual Appendix LOSING THE KINGPOST- WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU The 'topless glider' has been developed to reduce parasitic drag and thus increase performance by removing the top rigging. This has resulted in one of the largest changes in hang glider design and performance for some time.

  • Page 28: Appendix: Glider Options

    As a result of this commercial composite aircraft parts are designed to have sufficient strength with Barely Visible Impact Damage (BVID) and thus 'perfect' parts have enormous safety margins. Of course Avian cross tube spars are designed to the same criteria. However a small dent in a carbon fibre cross tube should be considered as much more serious damage than a similar sized dent in an aluminium cross tube.

  • Page 29: Appendix: Assembly Drawings

    This galvanised steel wire rope is theoretically the same strength as normal the normal rigging used. However Avian's testing suggests that, when made into rigging, the resulting cables are not as strong, even when brand new. Thus it is even very important that kinked cables should be replaced immediately. Once a cable has a kink the strands are damaged and replacement is the only cure.
  • Page 30 Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual Appendix ASSEMBLY DRAWINGS NOSE ASSEMBLY...
  • Page 31 Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual CROSS TUBE / LEADING EDGE JUNCTION...
  • Page 32 Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual CROSS TUBE CENTRE JUNCTION VARIABLE BILLOW VB. (OR VARIABLE GEOMETRY VG.)

  • Page 33: Appendix: Checking Washout

    These heights correspond to the washout rod angles. Minimum heights are given on the next page. Damage to the leading edges or washout rods can alter washout heights. If the washout heights are below those specified below the glider should not be flown. Please refer to Avian Ltd.
  • Page 34 Cheetah 160 Owner’s Manual CHECKING WASHOUT; GLIDER MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:...

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