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.


Tuesday, 17 May 2016

Very light lift on the VR98

Last Saturday was my only possible flying day of the weekend, but with winds forecast at 8 mph north easterly, Fochriw would have been heaving with para gliders, so I decided to fly the Wrecker at the Bwlch.

It appears the light wind conditions had put off my fellow fliers as when I arrived shortly after midday, I was the only soul there.

As it happened, the wind was northerly and not north easterly, so a move just a few hundred metres along from the Wrecker and I was on the VR98.

I decided to fly the Wildthing first of all to test the air, and it soon became apparent that I was going to struggle with lift. The lift would be fine for a while, then I'd pick up a nice thermal to get me some height so I could dive and pick up some speed to do some aeros, then I'd be left with a huge patch of sink and struggle to keep flying.

This in fact was the case and I lost the model down the cliff, which led to a long, and very dodgy traverse along the slope to retrieve it, but all was OK in the end.

I also flew the Moth which performed well in the light lift conditions.

Anyway, here is some video of the session. Enjoy.


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