Super Mini Topsky DLG

Reviewed by: Pete

This is my first DLG and I've been very pleased. The quality of the components is very good and although fiddly in places, the assembly is nothing too serious - anyone with some aeromodelling knowledge won't have any troubles. I put mine together over about a week and didn't encounter any difficulties.

I set the dihedral to 40mm under each wing and it flies fine. The glide ratio is very good but I've yet to get a good height on the launch - that'll come with practice.

A great service from Neil (thanks!) and a great glider, I can certainly recommend this one!

Reviewed by: Keith Maunders

The order arrived next day in strong cardboard box. Super service and comms from Mr Hyperflight. (Thank you).

A fast appraisal of contents showed that everything needed to complete assembly/build
was in the box and appeared to be of quality construction. I'm looking forward to putting this one together and trying on flat field and slope. Will post in forum when maidened.

Keith Maunders

Reviewed by: Robert Aiken

Hi folks if you're reading this you are probably thinking of buying a small DLG. I have now built and flown a Mini Top Sky which was my first DLG and I'm really happy with the results. The little glider flies really well and the discus launch thing isn't as big a nightmare as I thought it would be.

That said here are a few things that may help if you decide to build one.
1. There are no instructions in the kit, but they are available on the web link provided and numerous web forums have variations and modifications. In any case the build is very straight forward.
2. I didn't use any where near the recommended amount of dihedral it seemed way over the top. Mr Hyperflight was very helpful at working out the correct dihedral, seems to know his stuff and didn't mind answering a few queries about my build.
3. Keep the tail light and reinforce the bottom of the fin with a strand of carbon fiber and super glue.
4. If your going to use it for slope soaring don't be too worried about the weight saving. I'm not saying build it heavy, just that you can afford to use two drops of S/G to hold the horizontal stab on instead of one!

I hope you enjoy yours as much as I'm enjoying mine :-)

Reviewed by: Richard Sheppard

The kit arrived in a sturdy cardboard box less than 24 hours after I ordered it - great service from Hyperflight.
All components required for finishing the model are in the kit bar the adhesives and radio gear. The tail surfaces come finished in glass cloth and hinges laser cut (or milled?) into the balsa.
I built the glider over a couple of evenings, following the not very comprehensive instructions linked to on this site. It isn't a difficult build so I guess the information on-line is adequate but patchy.
The on-line instructions call for 8cm per side for dihedral, which seems excessive for and aileron model. I built mine with around 25mm per side and it flies fine. The fit of the tail boom to the pod is a little sloppy so I wrapped a piece of the supplied glass cloth around the spigot on the pod to obtain a tighter fit without recourse to a big dollop of epoxy.
For radio gear I used a standard 6 channel Flysky receiver stripped of its case and wrapped in heat-shrink. I found that by cutting down the plywood servo tray (made for 3.7 gram servos) I could slip the receiver down under the wing, which gave more access for the battery and a small switch (I used a 210mah Nicad and a jack socket switch) in the nose. I didn't like the wire in Teflon tube control runs taped to the exterior of the tailboom so made the surfaces sprung and ran guitar string pull wires down the inside of the tailboom. There where no hints on how to attach the carbon fibre nose hatch so I epoxied with a small glass cloth patch an overhanging length of 5x0.5mm carbon fibre strip along the underside of the cover which enables the cover to be slid forwards and then back to secure the ends under the hatch opening.
I also decided to leave off the launch peg and initially try launching by holding the wingtip between thumb and fingers. This seems to work fine on such a small model and I can throw the thing to around 30 metres with no trouble so I shan't bother fitting it.
Finished weight of my glider was around 170 grams. I made the wing centre section a little heavier than it needed to be but otherwise can't see where I could save much weight. Balance with the 210mah Nicad is about spot on. I suspect the pre-finished tail surfaces could be lighter. At this weight the glider flies very nicely. It responds well to the controls and I'm amazed how, when I want to land it nearer to my feet, I can get one more 360 out of it so near the ground without tip stalling. The rudder is handy in these cases for overcoming adverse yaw and helping it round at low speeds. The wing skin aileron hinges are still a little stiff so throw is restricted if available servo torque is low. I mean to detach the linkage and wobble them around a bit to free them up. The foam wing is easily bruised and mine has several dents where Ive absent-mindedly held it against my Tx whilst fiddling about with something but I doubt this noticeably affects performance.
It’s a great little model. Make some wing covers so you can chuck it in the car ‘just in case’ when you ‘nip out to the shops’ and you’ll have a tough little glider you can fly almost anywhere.

Reviewed by: Tom Robbrecht

As a first time DLG builder & pilot, I wanted a small, robust and low cost DLG. Choice in this size and price range is limited to two or three planes. My choice of the Super Mini Topsky was based on the abunancy of build logs, tips and information available on the Super Mini Topsky, giving me somethning to hang onto.

The plane arrived very well packaged on my doorstep in Belgium only days after my order
so the order process was simple, quick and painless.

As I learned from previous projects, building light is essential for performance, so I made a number of weight saving decisions up front, based on information I had gathered from various forums:
-The plane would be rudderless
-The elevator control surface would be spring loaded in the up-direction and actuated by a single-pull kevlar thread (braided fishing line) in the down-direction.
- The tail surfaces would not be covered using the supplied covering film, but slightly clear-coated.
-The wings would be permanently glued to the fuselage, eliminating the need for bolts, blind nuts.
-Epoxy was to be used sparingly.

This all lead to an AUW of 142g including 240mAh smartLipo, receiver AND 7g ballast in the nose.

Building the plane was not particularly difficult or time consuming, the biggest challenge in
my view is joining the wings. I built a jig from insulation-foam and 'rehearsed' the joining
of the wings several times. Not having to make hard-points for the bolts did make this task considerably more straightforward. Be aware that the foam is fragile and can be damaged by CA glue, heat, acetone and possibly other solvents !

Flying this plane is a pleasure. It is very forgiving and in still air it requires minimal control input. It is so light that it immediatly signals even the slightest thermals. The small wingspan combined with the ailerons makes the plane very agile. An additional advantage of the light weight is the low inertia, making hand-catches very easy and minimizing damage in case of a rough landings.

I would say this kit offers good value for money.

Reviewed by: Sam Smith

Excellent kit, contains all you need bar servos, receiver and instructions!

Neil at HyperFlight was very helpful in emailing an updated set of instructions (the ones linked here do not cover the aileron installation), as well as providing some nice lightweight Ripmax SD100 servos that fit perfectly.

I'm just back in from maidening the Super Mini Topsky in 6-8kt winds, gusting to 15kts, which is probably 'top end' wind speed for this little glider. Mine balanced out at 172g AUW, which is 20g heavier than the plan spec, and I've put 11º dihedral on the wing to stabilise it further (I live in Scotland; dead calm days are few and far between). It's a cracking model, very lively on the controls but stable enough to make the most of gusty conditions.

This has been my first DLG, first foam wing construction, and first aileron RC glider. Construction was simple enough to follow, requiring a minimum of tools and only about 5 hrs in total. Novices like me would be best advised that CA adhesive will dissolve the foam core of the wings, however Loctite Superglue (easybrush) is a good substitute. I used 5min epoxy where directed and am very happy with the results.

For value for money, great aesthetics and pure flying fun, this glider is definitely worth a look.

HyperFlight comment: We are not sure that adding extra dihedral will help, as it will reduce aileron effectiveness, and make the model more affected by gusts.