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.


Monday, 25 June 2018

Flying visit from USA blog follower

LastThursday I met up with Terry, an ardent follower of this blog. Terry hails from Syracuse in New York State, USA and was visiting family here in the UK, so he thought he would take the opportunity to leave London behind and head for our fabulous Welsh hills for a spot of slope soaring.

I met Terry and his family at Sarn motorway services, just north of Bridgend where they followed me up to the Ice Cream slope lay-by. Once there the north westerly wind that had been forecast had turned into a northerly, so after waiting for local friend Nick to arrive, we made our way up to the VR98 slope. Wind speed was 14-15 mph but with huge thermals they made the air very bumpy to fly in at times. Then of course with huge thermals comes huge sink in its wake, which made flying challenging at times.

Terry was most impressed with our huge, grassy slopes and the quality of the flying available, saying that he'd never flown or seen anything like the Bwlch back home in the USA.

Terry, it was a pleasure to meet you and your family and I hope to see you in Wales again sometime. Enjoy the video.


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1 comment:

  1. Terry Dwyer4 July 2018 at 20:10

    Yeeeehawww! What aWonderful time! a real blast! thanks for showing me around three cheers for you and Nick really great flying . until next time!
    sincerely yours
    Terry Dwyer
    Syracuse New York

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