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 November 2014

The weekends flying

Hi all. Looking at the forecast for the weekend, Saturday morning looks like it is going to be dry with an ENE up to about 12 mph, slipping to NE in the afternoon, so Manmoel looks like the place to be and certainly where I will be as I shall be in the pub in the afternoon watching the Wales v S Africa game.

Sunday doesn't look so clear cut. XC Weather shows N whilst the BBC is showing NE, so a trip to the Bwlch may be in order to fly either the VR98 or the Wrecker, although the Wrecker can be a bit scary when the wind is light. But last Sunday, there was next to no wind down in the valley's and in Cardiff, but on the VR98 there was a good, stiff breeze blowing, so it would probably be fine.

If any of you reading this read RCM&E magazine, and look at the gliding forums on its website, you will probably have come across Andy Meade. Andy is big into PSS and, from the pictures I've seen, has some spectacular looking models.

Well Andy is meeting me at Manmoel tomorrow. I have no idea why he is visiting our neck of the woods as I know he flies a lot from the Orme, which we all know is the 2nd best place in the country to fly ;o). I shall get some pictures and video I'm sure to share here.

See you on the slope.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for all the help, and some great flying on gorgeous slopes today. Will definitely be back! Lovely bunch of guys to fly with as well! Looking forward to the photos and videos.

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  2. Thanks for coming along Andy, it was good to meet and fly with you. I hope next time we have better wind conditions eh.

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