The UpLink-58 is designed to be launched discus style. You grab the left wingtip at the leading edge about 3 inches from the tip, face a bit to the right of the wind and let the UpLink sort of float. You then rotate around to the left with your right arm fully extended and release the UpLink when facing into the wind again. This should take less than three quarters of a second and the UpLink will then be traveling at a bit over terminal velocity. When the Uplink rotates upward to about 75 degrees you turn off the launch preset and watch it coast up for about two seconds then push the nose over so you end up at the required cruise speed, either max L/D or min sink, depending on what you need. You can then buzz over and enter the gaggle of conventional hlgs at the top of the pile, or simply float around if all you need is a one minute max.
NOTE: You lefty types need to reverse all of the rights and lefts in the above but you are probably used to doing that anyway. The Uplink is reinforced to allow either direction of rotation but the rudder horn needs to be on the right side for right handed throwing and the left side for left handed throwing.
The UpLink-58
The Uplink-58 is a sturdy pod and boom hlg designed for discus style launching. It does however have a sealed finger hole slightly aft of the CG to allow quick turnaround for the shorter (40 seconds or less) portion of ladder type events. The wing has a .013 composite shear web to keep things together during launch and has a bit of extra glass where you grab it for the discus style launch. The stab is held on with two #4 nylon screws so it will pack in a small place. This very nice T tail feature comes from a Phil Pearson design . The elevator linkage is attributed to Harold Locke. The rudder is almost 50 percent of the total vertical tail surface and provides quick response with low deflection rates and low drag. The carbon boom is light and rigid to take the stress of launch. The pod is a low drag design with a large radius nose to allow the battery pack to be placed as far forward as possible. The pod is reinforced with carbon where it is required but kept as light as possible. In fact, it is also micro-turbulated with tiny holes between the weave to reduce the wing and pod interface drag and also to keep it light. Some others seem to think of this as simply pinholes! The pod is designed to hold a 110 mah pack at the front followed by a 555 rcvr (on end no less) and then two servos. I use HS80 / CS80 style servos but you can go a bit bigger or smaller with no problem.
The Pod holds everything with room to spare. None of this radio on a stick stuff. Just position the servo bulkhead where needed for proper balance and stick the servos down with good thin servo or carpet tape. The pod is a bit wider than required for the electronics to allow it to support the huge side load from the battery pack during launch.
The rudder is nearly centered on the boom so there is not a large twisting load on the boom while launching.
The key to getting the most out of any design is having something to compare with during a trimming session. The general idea is to spend a lot of foggy mornings trimming each hlg to be better than the others. Then do the same thing on a few windy days. Make changes slowly, play with the CG, shim the stab up and down a bit, try larger and smaller stabs, different airfoils, etc. When you think you got it right you need to spend an afternoon flying against someone else who has the same goals in mind. I am lucky in having a number of very good people to fly against in the Seattle area. An hour of all up / last down flying against any of them provides about the same progress as about 10 hours of flying alone.
Just hanging around the frequency board
58 inch span triple taper vacuum bagged wing with composite shear web
Contents (c) 1999 Dick Barker Seattle, WA dickb@eskimo.com
Last updated Monday November, 1999 09:28:11 PST