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.


Tuesday 18 April 2017

Rhossili Magic

Sunday morning began fine and bright, but with only a light breeze blowing when I met up with Phil and Josh just off the M4 motorway north of Cardiff.

After picking up a McDonalds breakfast, we headed west for a 1 1/2 hour drive to the fabulous Atlantic coastal site of Rhossili in South West Wales.

We arrived at the small church car park at about 9 AM and it was empty, not even any cars belonging to para gliders.

Once we'd walked up to the top of the slope and made camp by the trig point, the wind was square onto the slope and blowing about 15 mph.

We were joined shortly afterwards by Richard, and then by another guy who spends half of the year living locally, and the other 6 months in the Midlands.

As the day progressed, the wind slowly picked up until it peaked at about 38 mph.

My new Valenta L213 flew perfectly nicely in the earlier 15 mph breeze, but in that 38 mph blow it was seriously rocking. Hopefully I can get some video soon of it performing in higher wind speeds, and also once I've gained some more confidence in flying it.


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