I had built and flown a TopSky 1.0 DLG over 10 years ago! Recently, I saw a kit for sale on eBay and figured I’d get another one in the air. This is a 1.5-meter wingspan DLG that was a classic in the world of DLGs for budget builders.

TopSky 1.0 DLG

My setup:

• Servos (3): Hitec HS-45HB
• Battery: 1S 650mAh Li-ion
• Receiver: ER6GV

Notes:

• I chose to build this as a 3-in-the-pod, which means that I put 3 servos in the pod instead of cutting into the wings to mount servos on the underside of each wing. This has benefits and drawbacks. Aileron authority will be less. You can build this kit with rudder too, I just don’t use it much so I chose just ailerons and elevator.
• This took two full days to build, so somewhere around 16 hours total. Having to join the wing is a big difference in build process compared to 1-meter wingspan DLGs and adds significant time.

Tools you’ll need in addition to what’s listed in the other DLG build log:

• gloves - rubber/surgical for working finishing epoxy into fiberglass
• saw to cut boom
• metal cylindrical / pencil-like sanding tool (“round file” / “rat tail”)
• dremel/drill + bit sized for wing bolts’ carbon tubing supports
• finishing resin/epoxy for fiberglass on wing root

Build Log

Woohoo, time to build another DLG! Fresh out of the box and looking good. I believe that roll of thin wax-like paper was supposed to be covering, but after sitting in the box for 15+ years, it was useless. I used it under the wings while I was gluing stuff so it didn’t stick to the table.

This kit comes with fiberglass and carbon fiber weave, both of which are used to reinforce key parts of the aircraft.

The included schematic.

A manual was included too.

Marking where the wing bolts will screw through the wing once both wing halves are put together.

Filing out the balsa for the wing bolts to run through.

Reminder: the carbon fiber tube needs to fit through. The wing bolts will go through this, so make sure the holes you file out are large enough for this carbon fiber tube, not just the screw diameter.

Laying the wing down and figuring out the angle. I forgot to scratch up the balsa on both sides of the wing halves to make the epoxy grip better. 5min epoxy on both sides here and let it cure.

Using the Dremel to cut a slow in the end of the tail boom for the rudder. By the way, the boom should be shortened on the pod side about 2"-3" so that the CG will work out. I did mine about 1-1.5" and it wasn’t enough.

Test fitting the rudder in the slot.

Applying CA glue to the carbon fiber weave after cutting it into pieces for both sides of the rudder. This piece is WAY too big, it should be thinner so that it follows the boom alongside the slot for the rudder on both sides.

The elevator control surface doesn’t come cut, so you have to cut it yourself. Sand down the inner edges too so that it moves up and down smoothly once connected.

Applying CF weave on the top of the elevator with CA glue.

Wing is dried, time to test fit the CF tube reinforcement and enlargen it as needed.

CF tubing cut and in place, ready for the screws later on.

Laying up the fiberglass after cutting it to size. For this, I’ll apply 30 minute finishing epoxy to hold down the fiberglass on both top and bottom of the wing joint.

Epoxy applied and wiped into the fiberglass. It dries clear.

Poking a hole in the fiberglass so that the wing bolt openings don’t get glued over – but this is not strictly necessary, I still had to drill some of the epoxy off to clear out the hole for the screws when the time came.

Drying! The epoxy I chose took about 4 hours to dry, but it wasn’t totally ready for handling until the next day.

Looking good the following day! Looks clean and secure.

Gluing the rudder into the tail boom slot, first with 5min epoxy on the boom itself, and then reinforcing it with fiberglass, held down with CA over the boom.

Lining up the elevator riser after sanding it to match the concavity of the boom. The CF weave should be on the other side and a slot should have been cut through the balsa for the riser, but I didn’t look closely enough at the directions to realize this until too late.

Control horn in place plus pushrod connector.

Gluing the elevator+riser to the boom. Lining all this up takes patience and some ingenuity. I used an altoids tin and a tape roll to keep it all in place.

Reinforcing the elevator with fiberglass, applied with CA, over the boom and joints.

Scratched up the pod end (that’ll go inside the boom itself) with a pick.

Drilled the holes for the aileron pushrods and elevator.

I cut the provided balsa piece apart that was designed to hold 2 servos, and used it as reinforcement on the sides of my 3-servo setup. I used the excess piece from the elevator riser to put in between the servos and glued it all with CA.

After test fitting, the pushrod connectors did not fit, so the these pushrod ends will have to be Z-bends.

Cut slots for the control horns (with pushrod connectors) on the ailerons. I had to widen the holes on the control horns to fit the pushrod connectors in.

Cut out carbon weave for reinforcing the wing bolts – top and bottom. I used CA for these.

Before applying 5min epoxy and sticking the boom onto the end of the pod, I make a mark with a pick where the elevator and rudder lined up with the pod so it all wouldn’t come out crooked.

5min epoxy applied and dried.

Dremel-ed out a hole for the throwing peg, used 5min epoxy to hold it.

Elevator pushrod attached to the boom and run through the pod. The kit came with pushrod tubing, so it was easy to just tape the tubing to the boom without any worry of the pushrod getting stuck on the tape.

Cut the aileron pushrods and finagled them through the pod and out. Used 5 min epoxy on the 3-servo block and reinforced it with a small dowel, just like I did for the 1m DLG (see later pics for dowel installation result).

Pushrods criss-cross inside and exit out the holes I drilled before.

Test fitment looks good.

Wing bolted on, aileron pushrods connected, ready for receiver and battery and final setup!

Under 10oz! Lucky, but it did need about 0.2oz of weight in the nose to get the CG right. Remember to cut that boom! (My rudder was also heavy because I used way too much carbon weave).

Looking good!

RX and battery up front fit great. Note dowel which was cut to size, sanded, and epoxied on top of the servo block to reinforce it all. Also note, that final servo towards the boom was aligned so that the servo horn screw would still be accessible from the pod opening, just in case something weird happens and I need to fix something.

I got in a few cold flights in December, no thermal activity, but it flies!

Note: the elevator pushrod is super flimsy, so you will have to find a way to hold it down in the pod so that it doesn’t become an “S”-shape under the load while it tries to push the elevator upwards. I did this by drilling two small holes in the pod vertically above and below where the pushrod was inside of the pod, and clamping the pushrod sleeving to the side of the boom with a piece of piano wire. YMMV.

Note 2: I originally cut the fiberglass into small strips and attached the elevator control surface with it with CA. I thought was the way do it but must have been mistaken, because it came loose after a few flights. I ended up using packing tape for the elevator control surface joint.

Note 3: I dropped an 8mm socket into the front of the pod, then held it in by stuffing one of those clay art erasers into the nose. This worked to balance out the CG.

Looks beautiful in the sunlight! What a nice looking DLG.

Best,

Daniel