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.


Saturday, 4 October 2014

Yayyyy, we managed to fly today.

When I arrived at Meio Common, Mark and Wayne were already there and flying on the NW facing slope. 

The wind seemed less strong than the 17 mph forecast and I would guess it was about 12 mph, but at least the sun was shining. 

I tried to fly the Traceur firstly but there wasn't enough wind. I think this is going to need at least 18 mph and more to get the best out of it. 

So I tried flying the M60 that Phil gave me. As I launched I realised I didn't have enough aileron movement on low rates, but fortunately I'd dialled more movement into high rates, which did the job. 

I did struggle to gain any real height so that I could put the plane into a power dive, gain some speed and energy to see what she would do. What I did manage to do was all good and I'm looking forward to some good autumnal weather to be able to put both models through their paces. 

Andrew came along also with his 60" Wildthing. I'd taken my old Spektrum DX6i transmitter with me so we could link the two transmitters with a buddy lead. This proved to be very successful and Andrew managed to get plenty of flying time in without me having to take control. This is obviously the way forward and I'm sure Andrew will only be on the buddy lead for a short time. 

Mark & Wayne chilling in the sunshine. 


The M60


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