Avian PUMA 13.5, Owner'S Manual

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Puma 13.5 Owner’s Manual
10. Lay the battens on the ground and pair them up, red (for the left wing) with green (for the right wing),
and check that corresponding batten pairs have the same profile. This is a good habit to get into as it will
reduce the chances of taking off on a glider with a turn caused by asymmetric shaped battens.
(Periodically all the battens should be checked against the batten profile.)
11. Put the first 4 battens from the root in their pockets working from the centre cord towards the tip. Keep
the trailing edge low and slowly ease the battens into their respective pockets. Leave the tip socks on.
12. Make sure you have opened the wing as far as possible. Tensioning the glider is made easier with the
help of a friend. Get him or her to lift a wing tip, thus opening the wings out further. Tensioning is then
easy.
13. 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 cords initially and then holding the webbing, pull the cross tube
restraint webbing back. Check that the cords are not twisted. Locate the stainless tang over the stub of
the bolt and slide into location closest to the keel. Now take the rear top wire (from the kingpost), place
tang onto bolt stub and replace the split ring. PUT THE RING IN IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT LEAVE
IT UNTIL LATER. If the tension feels too tight stop and see what is causing the problem. DO NOT
JUST FORCE IT. (Consult the trouble shooting area of this manual for possible causes. See Figure 1)
14. Take off the tip socks and unroll the sail. The last few battens can then be inserted in their pockets.
15. The compression strut (batten No. 10) nearest the wing tip can only be inserted when the glider has been
tensioned. It slides into its batten pocket and the front end locates on a plastic cleat on the leading edge.
This batten or compression strut is profiled on the Puma. Like all the other top surface battens the curve
should be up. (The top surface of the wing should be convex, not concave). Left and right compression
struts can be identified for the direction of the clippy end. All battens release inwards and snap closed
outwards (i.e. compression strut clippy ends should point the same way as all others)
16. Push the battens home the last little bit. With a new sail the battens may need a little push to go fully
home. The batten ends can then be snapped closed starting from the tip and working towards the root.
The snap battens all snap closed outwards. Do not alter the tension of the snap batten ends by turning the
fitting. (unless intentionally adjusting batten tension, see tuning section)
17. If not already in place, locate the nose batten on its seat just in front of the nose plate. (Some pilots only
remove the nose batten occasionally to check its profile.)
18. Lift the trailing edge of the sail near the tip and rotate the washout rods into position. Check that the
support wires are not caught around the washout rods. Zip up the under-surface zips. When the zips are
fully done up the washout rods are prevented from folding back alongside the leading edge.
19. The under surface battens are more easily inserted once the glider has been tensioned. They should be
pushed home so that only the rope projects from the batten pocket. Put the most outboard under surface
batten in first. The under surface battens can be pushed home with another under surface batten.
20. Double check that the nose catch is correctly attached and put the nose cone on.
Note: Never hook in nose catch without pip pin inserted, even as a temporary measure while
rigging, forgetting to insert the pip pin could have disastrous consequences!
21. If flying with wing tip fairing they should now be fitted: Put the tip inside the sail and attach the top
Velcro. Lift the trailing edge of the tip until the under-surface it tight as it will be in flight. Velcro the
lower surface to the tip fairing. When the trailing edge is released there will be some looseness at the
front of the under-surface at the tip. This looseness will disappear in flight.
22. The glider is now fully rigged and you should now make sure that you do a thorough pre-flight check
before you fly, making particular care that all undersurface zips (4 washout rods and central
undersurface) are closed.
PRE-FLIGHT CHECK-LIST
Detailed pre-flight checks must be carried out during rigging. If your glider has travelled on an airline we
recommend an even more thorough check including getting inside the sail to check all the main tubing very
Puma 13.5 hand book-Rev-02 9