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 28 February 2017

L213 Progress - 28th Feb

When I began this project, I wanted to have it completed by sometime in March. So barring any disasters, that will definitely happen, and then hopefully the weather will warm up a little so I can get out and chuck it off a big hill.

So here is where I now am with it.

I've fitted the 9 channel receiver and connected all the servo leads to it. I haven't glued the tray into place yet as I still have to connect the rudder pull pull wires to the servo arm and check that it is balanced correctly. I think I'm going to have to add a little weight under the tray to achieve the correct balance.


The air brake (spoiler) servo was fitted and the servo arm extended. I then bent a piece of wire and attached it to the brake flap. So the servo arm goes up, pushing the air brake up and the wind resistance keeps it pressed against the arm. When the arm goes down, wind resistance and gravity do their thing and the arm then slides through the loop in the wire, so that when the brake is fully closed, the wire stops it from opening or being lifted by air pressure. 

This was just a trial piece taped into place. I will fabricate another piece of wire and glass cloth/resin it into position.


I purchased KST servo mounts for ease of installation, but they also allow the servo to be easily removed should the need arise.

This is the aileron servo, and the flaps are much the same.


So I then connected the wing to the fuselage and tested that everything functioned as it should, and thankfully it does. I will set up all the mixes and throws once the model is complete.

This short video shows the functionality so far with flap mixed into aileron, aileron on its own, flap, and the air brake.







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