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 March 2017

L213 Progress 10th March

I'm nearly there! Both wings have now been completed and I sorted out the air brake/spoiler.

I was originally, (on the recommendation of a friend), going to put the brake on a three position switch, so it would be off/50%/100%, but then I decided to put it on a slider. So now when I activate it, the slider goes up to the mid position and the TX beeps at me, so I then know I'm at 50% and I can then move up to 100% if need be.

What I now need to work out, is how to link that in with crow/butterfly, but also use a switch to activate it in crow or not.

In fairness, it isn't likely to be used that much, but I have found with my X Models Whisper, whose flap travel isn't the greatest but about the same as the L213, that when flying in lighter conditions, there is little wind resistance to slow it down when on finals, so the brake will hopefully help this.

The simple wire attached to the underside of the brake seems to work well as you can see from the following video and cannot be pulled up once locked in the down position.



Then it was time to check out how the model balanced. Valenta recommend a CofG at 82mm, which is right in the centre of the wing joiner, and checking with other owners on various forums, this measurement appears to be spot on.

Even with two LiFe battery packs mounted up front, she still needed 670gm (1lb 7½ oz) of extra weight. It's no wonder very few people add ballast to this model.

I scoured my bits and pieces boxes for anything I could use to ascertain the extra weight needed, and well, you can see from the picture, three battery packs and a few sticky tyre weights.

Hopefully I have a solution with an offer made to me from someone who has a load of lead shot available, which I can mix with epoxy and shape and glue into the nose.


So that is it for now. Once the balance has been sorted I can then fit the pull pull rudder wires, fit the canopy, check all over that nothing is amiss, and then wait for suitable weather conditions to chuck it off a big hill.


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