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, 17 February 2017

Weekend Flying Forecast

Good morning fellow slopies. Another weekend is upon us and those chilly temperatures have disappeared leaving us with some milder weather. In fact, the BBC Wales weather girl, Behnaz reckons that the beginning of next week could possibly see temperatures in the low teens.


So here is your weekend forecast.

Saturday - A dry, mild day with a southerly wind of about 6 - 10 mph. So your choice of slopes will be Back of Wrecker at the Bwlch, or on the coast at Southern down.

Sunday - A dry, mild day with a westerly wind of 10 - 14 mph. So your slopes of choice will be Rhossili, Mickeys at the Bwlch, Eglwsilan Common or if you just want a quickie hour then you could fly Meio, although this isn't the best on a westerly, although it's ok for foamie wings.

I shall probably fly on Sunday but I haven't decided yet whether I'll be making an afternoon of it, in which case I'll fly at Mickeys, or just an hour or two, in which case I'll just go to Eglwysilan.

On another note, there was a piece on the BBC yesterday about spikes that have been placed in the ground at the Bwlch. Obviously someone is mighty peeved about the off road bikers churning up the ground up there.



Concealed spikes left on tracks on Bwlch mountain in Rhondda Cynon Taff could soon cause a "nasty injury", an off-roading club has said.

The club, which found the spikes, told BBC Radio Wales' Good Morning Walesthey looked as if they had been made "for the sole purpose of causing injury".
South Wales Police has launched an investigation.
Michael Toseland, a marshal for off-roading events club Bonkas 4x4 Wales, said they have had issues with some rights of way being blocked.
He added: "A couple of our guys were out at the weekend and noticed some people looking like they were filling holes in and putting some quite nasty metal spikes in.
"They are burying them just under the surface of the soil, so if you stepped on them you'd get quite a nasty injury.
"I've never seen anything like this. It's quite a worrying thing. There's lots of dog walkers and children around there."
Mr Toseland said off-road drivers have a bad reputation, but insisted his club "always try to make sure we stick to the legal lanes".
Have a good weekend guys.
Happy flying
Steve
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