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.


Sunday 13 May 2012

Ice Cream Slope Thermal Fun ......... or not!

Saturday 12th May
I met Mark up on the Ice Cream Slope at the Bwlch, the sun was out, big fluffy white clouds were floating across the sky, and huge thermals were coming through. The only problem with that was that they left in their wake a huge whole of dead air, as you can see from the following video's. Chris in particular launched his Experience Pro F3J straight into some of that dead air. Down and down she went, but Chris kept cool and managed to grab what little air there was and get her back to the top of the slope. Phew!




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