About A470 Soaring


This is the blog for a few guys who spend their time flying radio controlled gliders, or slope soarer's, from the many and varied slopes around SE Wales.

This usually begins at the northern end of Cardiff, driving north up the A470 up to the Heads of the Valley's and the southern fringe of the Brecon Beacons. But the A470 road continues its windy way all the way to N Wales.

There are many slopes available for most wind directions, the most famous being the area between Nant-y-Moel and Treorchi known as The Bwlch, which has some of the best slopes and flying in Europe with many F3F competitions being held there each year and visited by many fliers from Europe and around the world. At 1500 feet (450m) above sea level, there is usually more wind than not, and certainly more than at sea level.

If you require any further information, are new to slope soaring or are visiting the area, please contact Steve at steve.houghton59@gmail.com . I look forward to hearing from you.

Take a look at Page 2 (look below and to the left here) for Google maps of our most popular Flying Sites.


Tuesday 25 March 2014

Flippin cold in Abertwssyg

Sunday 23rd March 2014 - Well what a change in the weather that was! The previous Sunday we had all been sat on the same mountain top basking in 16 degrees and glorious sunshine. This week we still had mostly sunshine, but it was only 3 degrees with a couple of snow grain showers thrown in for good measure, and in the distance, the peak of Pen Y Fan could be clearly seen, bright white with a good covering of snow on it.

As for the flying? Truly awesome! Wind was around 30mph with booming lift. 100ft high loops were possible from level flight and Mark, (he with suicide bomber tendencies) would put his plane into a steep dive and get a 300ft loop easily.

We went to Abertwssyg because there was an F3F competition on at The Bwlch but, I certainly didn't feel like I had to fly on the second best slope. We are truly blessed in S Wales for not just the quantity of slopes but, also the quality of the slopes.

Here's nearly 6 minutes of Sundays action.

                                  

Friday 21 March 2014

Back of Wrecker at The Bwlch

Saturday 8th March 2014 - I met up with Mark and Chris on the Back of Wrecker. The wind was blowing a good 30mph from the south and it wasn't too turbulent as it can be sometimes.