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.


Thursday 26 February 2015

A catch up on last weekends flying

Well Saturday was the only available flying day due to the weather, and I met up with Mark at Abertysswg as we had a north westerly blowing in. We had thought about going to the Bwlch and flying on the Ice Cream slope but, with snow showers forecast, we thought being close to the car would be good so that we could take shelter. As it happened, that was a good idea. Phil turned up a little later with his youngest son and had a short while flying before the cold kicked in.

I arrived late morning with only 1°C showing on the car temperature readout. The wind was light and we could see bands of snow showers heading our way in the distance, coming in from the Brecon Beacons, so flying between them was going to be the order of the day.

As the day went on, the winds did pick up and Mark was able to fly his old Acacia F3F machine, whilst I flew the Whisper, Traceur and Wildthing.

The fin modification I made to the Wildthing, (see a previous post), worked well, which I was very pleased with. I'm still trying to get the settings right on the TX for the Traceur. For instance, when I first flew it, the elevator was far too twitchy with only a little movement input, so I added some expo. This worked, however, when I go inverted, I find that I have to push the stick well forward, and then all of a sudden the elevator kicks in too much and she shoots upwards. Maybe I should try reducing the movement a little more!

On Monday, Phil had another big angina attack and ended up in hospital, where he still is. We are hoping they will fit him with stents, which will help prevent the attacks. We all wish Phil a speedy recovery and we hope to see him back on the slopes soon, as I know he is dying to get out there.

It doesn't look like I will be flying this weekend. The weather forecast isn't good with rain for Saturday and 40mph blowing in on Sunday. As it happens, I am running in the St Davids Day 10k in Bute Park, Cardiff, so I wouldn't be flying anyway.

The following weekend I am heading to Crawley after work on Friday 6th, and then onto the slopes of the South Downs for some flying with Paul Hampshire and the boys of Slope Soaring Sussex on Saturday and Sunday, which I am really looking forward to. This will be my first of three "away" trips I have planned for this year so far. I love flying the slopes of S Wales but, it's nice to go elsewhere and try slopes in other areas.

Anyway, that is all for now and I hope to see you on the slopes soon.

Happy flying.


1 comment:

  1. I read this a bit quick Steve and thought I "had a short, while flying"
    That would explain a lot 😂

    ReplyDelete