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, 15 February 2016

Winter flying on Fochriw

So yesterday, (Valentines Day) all the guys seemed to have deserted their partners and headed for the slope.

On arrival there was no sign of any para gliders, (phew), the wind was blowing in from the north east at 20 - 25 mph, there was snow on the top of Pen Y Fan mountain, and on the hill overlooking Ebbw Vale just two valleys over from us, and the car was showing a temperature of just 1°C, so it would have been a few degrees colder in that wind.

Mark had brought along his new purchase, a Baudis Pitbull F3F, which didn't fly as the CofG was about 10mm out.

Chris had brought along his new Needle 124 and had a hairy maiden flight, (as you will see in the video) because he had his TX Phase Switch on the wrong setting, and as I understand it, this caused all the controls to be on maximum throws, which made the elevator decidedly twitchy. But he got it down ok and managed a better flight later on.

The rest of us were mainly flying a variety of foamies and we all had a blast in great lift.

I will apologise now as the following video isn't one of my better ones. This was due to cold, numb fingers, and it was too cold to wear my hat cam also.

We did all enjoy the flying and spent 2 - 3 hours up there. Roll on the warmer weather though.


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