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 21 May 2015

Bank Holiday weekend flying and latest news

Hi all. Well another bank holiday weekend is almost upon us and weather wise it's a bit of a mixture.

Saturday looks like being very light, (4 - 5 mph), N - NE and a lovely, sunny day, so I am going to try out the Thermal Instinct for the first time. Hopefully Phil will come along and capture the event on video for me and I can try out some thermal hunting.

Sunday is looking cloudy with a 14 mph W - SW forecast, so hopefully this will equate to about 20 mph on the slope at Mickey's. Paul Hampshire of Slope Soaring Sussex is visiting this weekend so I shall be meeting up with him for the walk along the gravel track.

The weather man still can't seem to make up his mind about Monday and I have seen a couple of different reports, so I guess we shall have to take a look nearer the time and make a decision about flying then. But currently it's looking like a north westerly, so the Ice Cream Slope could be a good bet.

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Next week I need to get on and make repairs to the Lightning in readiness for the trip up to N Wales on the 12th June, and get the Impala at least in a flyable condition.

I believe Phil has begun work on another correx build project, this time a MIG 7, or is it a MIG 3? either way, it's a WW2 Russian fighter which he is building for Andrew Meade, who is currently engrossed in completing his 1/6th scale PSS A10 Thunderbolt (Warthog), which he is trying to complete in time for the same event in N Wales.

I guess that's about all the news for now and I hope to see a few faces out and about on the slopes this weekend.

Happy flying
Steve

3 comments:

  1. Hi guys.
    Not sure if we can fly the Bwlch this weekend because I believe there is EPP 60 racing going on..

    Steve, I'll be available Saturday until approx 3;30 - 4:00 if this is any good to you.

    Andy's Mig is the 7 but the only difference between the 3 and 7 is a modified engine and slightly larger wing span on the 7.

    Hope to see you guys on Sunday..

    Phil

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  2. Phil. According to the BARCS event calender, the EPP60 racing is next weekend, the 30th & 31st May.

    That's great mate. Do you want to come over to mine for about midday? I'll have the plane loaded in the car but the field is only 2 mins up the road. I guess we'll only be an hour.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Opps, looks like I'm a week ahead of myself....Mickeys it is then.

    Ok Steve I'll be down about midday on Saturday.

    ReplyDelete