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.


Monday 9 March 2015

Sussex Slope Safari

So bright and early on Saturday morning, Paul at Slope Soaring Sussex  met me in Crawley and I followed him down to Newhaven where we had a SSW wind blowing, so Paul, Rob, Jack and myself launched our foamies off the sea cliff there for an hour or so. David turned up with his Middle Phase but landed it in the thick brambles behind us. You do NOT want to land in that lot.

So, after this we decided to move on to Mount Caborn, a conical shaped hill with a good walk to it. This slope has good lift and the landing is soooo easy there too.

When we arrived there, there were already a couple of guys flying but, I think they must have thought that more was a crowd, and they headed off to another part of the slope to get away from this rabble who had invaded their air space, especially as we were also joined by Graham. (I think I'm getting the names right here, I apologise if I haven't).

Rob and I had a mid air with his Ninja and my Wildthing, which landed in the next field. As I got to the model I realised all wasn't well and discovered the fuz had split in half, but nothing that can't be fixed. It was no ones fault and just one of those things that happens when you get a few foamies in the air at the same time.

After an hour or more at Caborn, Paul wanted to finish off day one by showing me Mill Hill at Shoreham. This is a park and fly site and there were lots of guys flying there. One section of the slope seems to have been designated as a foamie combat zone, and the other for moudies and other models.

Height is a problem here as we were right on the flight path of the light aircraft on final approach to land at Shoreham airport, and you have to keep a close eye on them and keep well out of their way.

Paul and the boys don't normally like flying at Mill Hill but wanted me to experience the place. I am glad they did as I will now know to avoid it.

Day two and Paul picked me up from Crawley and we went to Itford Hill where we met up with Rob and Ian. This is a long, shallow slope, unlike the high, steep monsters I'm used to in Wales, where the wind was blowing WSW, but then soon changed to being off slope at SSW. Still, there was enough air for me to fly my Whisper and then use the incoming thermals to gain some great height before diving in for some screaming runs.

Rob had a Stargazer and Ian a Wildthing and Vagabond. Paul was flying his Zulu and Traceur. Paul let me fly his Traceur and I repaid his generosity by nearly taking him out when I came out of a manoeuvre  a little low. I think Paul has this on video, which I shall look forward to seeing later.

By lunch time we all had to make a move home. I had a fantastic weekend, with fantastic weather and fantastic company and I shall look forward to my next week. Can I be an honorary member of Slope Soaring Sussex please guys?

Anyway, here is some video from the first day. I'm sorry there isn't more but I was having too much fun to take video. May I suggest you watch it in 720p as 1080 appears a little jumpy.

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