Supair have issued a safety warning regarding the possibility of some LEAF gliders entering parachutal phase when inducing big-ears in unaccelerated flight. Not all gliders are affected. For affected gliders a line kit will be made available to eliminate the risk of a parachutal phase free of charge. Read the full notification and safety warning from Supair for more details:
"Parachutal phases were observed on a few manufactured “Leaf” while pulling “Ears” in non-accelerated flight mode, the wing will come out of the parachutal phase as soon as the “Ears” are reopened. Although we have not noticed it, this problem could also appear on high incidence phases, for example during winch towing take-offs.
After checking a few LEAF already manufactured, we found that some were actually set with a slow flying configuration and to the maximum allowed for certification approval tolerances, all sizes could be concerned. To remedy the problem, we validated a new quicker setting for production on all new wings without modifying the certification characteristics.
For the LEAF owners with a serial number not ending with the letter "A", we have a line kit available to eliminate the risk of a parachutal phase.
The line replacement can be done by either contacting your local dealer, a certified repair centre, or the SUPAIR Customer Service Department directly: [email protected]
Note: This problem does not concern the LEAF-LIGHT."