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.


Friday 20 November 2015

Weekends Flying 21-22 November

Hi guys

Well there is a definite change in the weather for this weekend over the past couple of weeks, which have been stormy to say the least.

So Saturday is looking like the windiest day with a N-NNW at 28 mph but calming down a bit as the afternoon progresses. However, the kick in the teeth is the temperature which at Cardiff airport will be about 6*C, add to that the altitude at the Bwlch say, and the wind chill factor, and that amounts to a bloody cold day!

Sunday we are looking at similar temperatures but the wind is forecast to be mostly from the north but about 17 mph.

Both days are looking great to re-maiden my rebuilt Polecat anyway.

I was thinking of heading up to Hirwaun Common as we have northerly winds. The lift is superb there and every bit as good as the Bwlch, in my opinion, but Hirwaun has a first class landing zone, unlike the VR98, which can be a bit hairy with the road so close to the flying area. But with the temperatures being so low, the VR98 may be the better option as we can warm up in our cars when body parts begin to freeze.

What I may do is fly the Bwlch on Saturday and Hirwaun on Sunday. We'll see.

Happy flying
Steve

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