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, 10 November 2017

Weekend Flying Forecast 11th/12th November and other stuff

So it's the middle of November and apart from a couple of frosty mornings, it still isn't very cold, which suits me fine as I'm definitely a warm weather person.

Saturday - a rainy day with a 15 mph NW breeze.

Sunday - a bright and sunny but cooler day with a 16 mph NW breeze

Your slopes of choice will be the Ice Cream slope at the Bwlch, Abertysswg, or if you only have an hour or two to spare and don't want to travel very far, Meio Common.

I have some time available on Sunday so I may just head up to Meio or the Ice Cream slope, depending on where others fancy flying.

Zagi Bash 

 Just a reminder that Zagi Bash is taking place at the Bwlch on the following Sunday, the 19th. Obviously we won't know which slope until nearer the time as it is weather forecast dependent.

I have just finished building my Genesis SL for this event and I used my usual laminate sandwich method for the build, (see my Wildthing rebuild for details). This has really stiffened up the foam wing and adds plenty of bash resistance. I also used control snakes for the elevons instead of wire rods, and buried the snakes into the foam as exposed wire control rods are easily damaged as a point of contact during combat. In fact I have tried to reduce any point of contact that could result in damage to the model.

This needs a test flight this weekend. I balanced it roughly last night so I need to get that right before next Sunday, even if it means going out the day before too.


The top


The underside

Valenta L213A Video

A few weeks ago I was on Meio with a few others and Chris took some video of me flying my L213. The wind was light, at about 15 mph ish if I remember correctly, but Big Bird, (as I affectionately call the L213), flew very nicely indeed. Here is the video and enjoy your weekend.




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