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 28 July 2017

Weekend Flying Forecast 29th/30th July

What a month July has been weather wise. We've had sunny, hot days, and then very autumnal days with strong winds, heavy rain showers and cooler temperatures. A typical British summer really I guess. And now we're coming into August, the UK's rainy season lol.

Saturday - A mostly dry day but a possible stray shower or two could come in, with a light SW breeze of about 8 mph. So your slope choices will be Mickeys or Meio.

Sunday  - A day of sunny intervals and showers with a SW wind of about 16 mph. Again your slope choices will be Mickeys or Meio.

If you can live with the showers, Sunday, with the stronger winds, will be your best flying day. For myself, I'll play it by ear. I could take a gamble on the wind being stronger on Mickeys, but its a longer journey time if it isn't, so I may just take the 2m Whisper and a foamie to Meio for a couple of hours.

Sunday 23 July 2017

St. Agnes Head Flying

Here is some video of my flying during a recent trip to St. Agnes Head in Cornwall. As you will see, the wind was very light and regular showers on the Saturday.


Friday 21 July 2017

Weekend Flying Forecast 22nd/23rd July

This is supposed to be summer! So why do we have October weather? This is our British summer of course and warm, sunny weather is never guaranteed.

Saturday is looking like a grey and wet day with a SE wind of around 12 mph, so if you did decide to try chancing your luck on our beautiful Welsh slopes, then it would have to be Back of Wrecker, although it may be a bit off the face here. The alternative is to walk over to the far side of the Crest instead, but that's a long old trudge. I suspect that the cloud base may be too low to have a successful days flying at the Bwlch.

Sunday is looking like the better day with a SW wind of around 13 mph, so on Meio or Mickeys you're likely to have 20 mph easily, and those would be my slopes of choice for Sunday.

Unfortunately I won't be flying this weekend, but weather permitting I certainly will next weekend.

I have a little bit of video to edit of my trip to Cornwall last weekend, where I did manage to do a little bit of flying, in between the bands of drizzle that was coming in off the Atlantic, so I hope to have time to post that, maybe on Monday night.





Until next time, happy flying people.

Steve

Friday 7 July 2017

Weekend flying forecast 8th/9th July

Here we go again and I can't believe we're into the second half of the year already.

Saturday - A dry but cloudy day with temperatures around 19°C.  A light breeze of around 9 mph starts off north westerly but shifting to south westerly by mid morning. So your slope choices will be Mickey's of Meio. With such a light forecast, Mickey's would be my slope of choice.

Sunday - A very similar day to Saturday with a light breeze beginning north westerly but then turning westerly. Slope choices will be Rhossili, Mickey's, Eglwysilan or Meio. My choice would be Rhossili or Mickey's.

But once again I am running instead of flying as I am running the half marathon section of the Long Course Weekend at Tenby. I will be flying next weekend, however that will be from St Agnes Head in Cornwall.

Have a great weekend all.