get a feeling for the inflation and reactivity of your Urubu in flight.
Frequent ground handling will lead to a more relaxing launch and
feeling more comfortable in the air.
Harness
The Urubu can be flown with any approved harness, with a mini-
mum carabineer distance of 43cm. You are reminded that flying
with a cocoon (pod) harness requires some experience and is not
recommended for new pilots.
Advanced Flights
The Urubu offers a huge potential for usable speed and remains
solid during turbulent conditions, hence offering great flying po-
tential. Nevertheless, we’d like to point out that when flying the
Urubu, these strong conditions will not become calm, nor will the
Urubu transform a beginner pilot to an expert.
Flying in strong conditions/flying incidents:
No pilot, nor wing is immune from the potential of a collapse. How-
ever, by flying actively, the risk can be virtually eliminated. Always
fly more actively in strong conditions and try to anticipate the re-
actions of the wing. Always be aware of your altitude and avoid
over- piloting the wing. We recommend that you never let go of
the controls and that you always fly in conditions suited to your
ability. In turbulent conditions the pressure in the wing can change
rapidly and you will feel this in the controls. Aim to maintain a
constant pressure of the wing by actively flying; if you feel a loss
of pressure, pull down quickly on the brakes until the pressure is
restored, then release. It is not necessary to permanently fly with
a lot of brake, be aware of your stall point and always pay attention
to your air speed.
During accelerated flight the leading edge may become affected,
so remain vigilant during strong conditions.
The following is advice that should be taken seriously. They are in no
way an instruction on how to deal with a flying incident. As an XC
pilot, you must be aware and able to deal with any flying incident.
In the event of an unavoidable asymmetric or frontal collapse, fix
your eyes on a distant landmark and try to maintain your course by
using your controls and by weight-shifting in the harness. Reach
for the contact point of the collapsed area and pull and release the
hand quickly, the wing should re-inflate itself. A strong and positive
action will not cause any problems as long as it is brief.
In any case, don’t let the glider go into rotation without any control.
In case of Deep Stall:
you will have to put hands up. If this does
not recover the glider after 3 to 4 seconds, you should push on the
A’s; or push the speedbar.
This configuration shouldn’t happen if your glider is in good shape
and dry.
Full Stall:
the glider tends to recover very fast without pitch; be
aware of cravats.
Spin: you will stop a spin by putting your hands up and managing
the pitch.
Cravat:
pull the outside B until you sort it out while weight-shifting
to the opposite side in order to maintain direction.In case of a big
cravat, you might have to use a symmetric or asymmetric stall to
clear it out. You can also initiate a 50% asymmetrical collapse on
the cravated side to clear it out.
In any case, don’t hesitate to pull the reserve if you are out of control.
Rapid Descent :
These techniques are reserved for emergencies only and they
should be practiced and mastered under supervision. If you re-
main vigilant to changing conditions, you are unlikely to need to
use them.
You can use Big Ears + speedbar to increase your sink rate and keep
moving forward. Grab the sheathed part of the outside A line and
pull them down of the same amount that you grabbed. Be aware
that if you pull too much, the Big Ears will tend to be unstable,
especially if you apply speedbar.
If your Big Ears are stuck in, pump them out with quick inputs.
The spiral dive will allow an even higher sink rate. We remind you
that during an engaged spiral the pilot may become disorientated.
When performing a spiral dive, ensure you have adequate time and
height to recover. To come out of the spiral (if you reach a sink
rate>15m/s, you might experiment a neutrality in the spiral), raise
the inside control, and if this isn’t sufficient apply the brakes sym-
metrically to slow the rotations down.
Be aware that weight-shift can play a critical role in accelerating
and slowing the spiral dive and be sure to release any inside weight
shift to the zero or neutral position.
It’s very important to train for all the fast descent methods on a
regular basis.
Note: During an engaged spiral, the outside control becomes the
most physical, even in a raised position. Be aware that the wing
can experience high roll angles when wing-overs are initiated,
with or without Big Ears. LittleCloud bans the using the B’s to de-
scend or initiating a B-line Stall.
SIV/ Flying Incident
It is very complicated to explain in this manual how to manage all
the flying incidents (stall, deep stall, spin...) because each case is
different and link to the conditions when and where they happen.
During our extensive development tests, we focus on getting the
glider with very neutral and predictable behavior when a flying in-
cident occurs. This allows easier management.
SIV courses can be done with the Urubu.
Note that all the tests were processed without any folding lines.
You have to be aware that the high collapse resistance of the glid-
er can lead to some difficulties to achieve them. It can result in
MASSIVE collapses with very aggressive glider behavior if not per-
formed properly (high angle collapse).
We think at LC that SIV can be a positive step in the pilot progres-
sion, with the reserve of not being an “Air Rodeo”.
SIV are here to help the pilot progression, not to scare him or her!
SIV instructors should be experienced with LittleCloud gliders.
In any case your SIV instructor can contact us at: [email protected]
6
LittleCloud
Urubu Manuel/Manual
