Fochriw Mountain

Saturday 28th April
It was a grey old morning as I arrived up the winding, single track road from Pontlottyn to the top of Fochriw, looking in a north easterly direction.

I parked the car on the grass at the side of the road and walked the 30 or so yards to the edge of the slope, this is the kind of sloping we like, park and fly. The wind was blowing about 30mph and that north easterly was bitterly cold, so I walked back to the car and donned a few more layers of clothing, a woolly hat, gloves and ski jacket.

I took the Wildthing out of the car, switched on the TX and RX, checked that everything functioned correctly, walked to the slope edge and gave her the old heave ho, and away she went. The lift was great with smooth air, not quite as smooth as Hirwaun Common, but almost there.

The cold forced me to land after a few minutes and I sat back in the car warming up when Mark phoned asking where I was. As I was explaining, his car appeared coming around the bend.

Mark took out his Ron Broughton designed chevron wing, the Ballistik and gave that a blast. Chris turned up, rigged up his Strega F3F and had fun, carving tight turns and runs along the face of the slope. This was followed by Mark doing the same with his Willow F3F before the rain came in. We sheltered in our cars, taking advantage of the weather to have a coffee.

Once the rain had passed, Chris rigged up his Mini Vec and gave that a fly, however, after several attempts to land it, the plane was almost hovering over the landing zone when it suddenly began rolling uncontrollably  before crashing into the ground. On inspection, the glass fibre fuselage had completely split in two behind the wing, and just in front of where he had made an earlier repair. I can only think that maybe there were hairline cracks in the glass fibre from the earlier damage which had been repaired and it was only a matter of time for it to break again through stress.

I had one more flight and then decided to go home and have a cup of hot chocolate, leaving Mark & Chris to carry on.

This was the first time any of us had flown off Fochriw, for me mostly because I know the para gliders fly from there also, but I'll certainly fly from there again on a north easterly.

Mid April Flying

Friday 20th April  - Knowing I finish work early on a Friday, Big Phil phoned and asked if I fancied hitting the Meio after work as he was having withdrawal symptoms having not flown slope for a while.

He met me at home, loaded his car with my back pack and models and 30 minutes later we'd pulled into the lay-by at the Meio.

On the top of the hill the wind was blowing about 15mph as we launched Wildthings and Weasels, Speedo's and Banana's into the grey sky. But that sky was gradually clearing, the sun beginning to warm up the ground and both the wind and thermals picked up. The wind picked up to 23mph, gusting 30 and the lift was huge.

Phil had made an attachment to attach his camcorder to a hard hat and so experimented with that, and here is the result.

Brrrrrr

Hirwaun Common - Sunday 15th April

The morning hardly had a cloud in the sky, but that northerly wind coming in from the Brecon Beacons was bitterly cold.

Mark and I arrived at the mark by about 9.30am and we quickly launched and flew for a few minutes before the cold forced us to land and try to warm up again. The lift was patchy but we knew from experience that it wouldn't stay this way.

Roger turned up with his Valenta Capocino, a lovely looking 2.65m model with carbon wing, and by this time the lift was improving all the time, with some pretty big thermals coming through also. This was followed by Chris with his Strega and Mini Vec amongst others, and then Clarke, a visitor from Canada who flew his Mini Vec and Destiny.

By this time the lift was HUGE, as were the thermals and the air was smooth as silk, but I think the cold got the better of us as one by one we began to pack up around 2pm to make a move home.

It's not often I pray for a northerly wind in the summer but, this place could be truly amazing when the summer thermals come through.

Happy flying people

Easter Weekend

Saturday saw myself and Mark meet up with Roger (Cliff Hanger) from Swansea and Doug from Guildford at Hirwaun Common. The wind was light, about 10mph with patchy thermals, but the drizzle came in from the Brecon Beacons which saw us pack up and go home after just a couple of hours.

Sunday and the wind was from the NW as it had been on Saturday and as I didn't have a lot of fuel in the car, and I was going to be commuting to Bristol each day this week, I decided the Meio was the place for me to fly. The lift and thermals were a bit patchy but slowly improved as the morning went on.


Mark had gone to the Bwlch to fly the Ice Cream Slope, and I had a great view of that huge cliff called The Crest from my vantage point, and so I noticed when the Welsh clag came in and totally covered the area. Mark phoned me to say that he started off flying the Ice Cream Slope but then the wind changed direction and so he made the half mile or so walk to Mickey's which is SW facing, but when he got there, the wind was right off the face so he decided to come over to the Meio. Mark had said that whilst on the Ice Cream Slope, he had his Willow F3F going faster than he had ever flown before.


I had to leave just as Mark arrived at Meio, but he sent me a message later saying that the wind had swung round to the favoured SW slope on Meio and that his Willow had been flying stupidly fast. He's certainly getting the hang of flying that model, which is a fabulous entry level F3F ship.


Until next time, happy flying.


Steve

The Wrecker - Sunday 25th March 2012

Sunday morning dawned a beautiful, warm sunny day and I headed up to the Bwlch. Mark was already on his way according to the text message I had received from him earlier. . The wind had been forecasted as easterly, but when I arrived, Mark was already landing his Graupner Mini Graphite on the landing zone for the Wrecker which is north east facing. . Mark and I had several flights in the 15mph wind and it must have been around midday as Chris arrived. .

The Wrecker isn't called the Wrecker for nothing. Because the rotor on that slope is so bad, you have to walk 100 yards to the right of the flying position, to the lay-by, then cross the road behind you, then walk 100 yards up the slope behind you in order to land the model in one piece. So as I was walking towards the lay-by, my foot went into a hole and I almost twisted my ankle and fell over, whilst still flying the Synergy. Then as I got to the lay-by I lost the lift and the plane suddenly began to sink like a stone. I tried to get it back to the ridge where I was prepared to take my chances with any rotor rather than lose it on the cliff but, there wasn't enough air flow over the wings for the ailerons to work properly and she ended up inverted, on a ledge about 50' below. Gutted!
Chris flew his Dogan, Mark his Willow, then Chris again with his Strega before I decided to fly my Beevolution, foam chevron wing. . The Beevo was pilot error! I'd performed a roll very close to the cliff face but must have over cooked it because she went inverted again. I pulled in up elevator to bring it level and bring her up but not before she hit the cliff, again about 50' below the ridge. Double gutted! How could I have managed to do that twice! . Mark is contacting the rock climber guys who rescued his Balistik off the Crest to see if they can retrieve both models for me. The Beevo I think will definitley test their climbing skills lol. .  Steve

Hirwaun Common 18/03/12

With a northerly wind forecast, the plan would normally have been to fly the VR98 slope at the Bwlch, but there was an F3F competition on there so we had to have a re-think.

I remembered previously driving past the Tower Colliery, heading south from the Heads of the Valley's road at Hirwaun and noticing the north facing slopes there. So with that in mind, Mark and I met up at Tesco, near to the Trefforest Industrial Estate on the A470 and set off through Pontypridd, Porth, Treorchy, Treherbert and then up the Rhigos mountain road to the snack van lay-by where we met up with Roger (Cliff Hanger) from Swansea who had flown the area before.

Roger showed us the way, along the road for maybe 150 yards, then turning off to head across the mostly flat common following a north west facing slope. After about 15 minutes we reached a white post stuck in the ground where the slope was now facing north and the 15mph wind was blowing straight into our faces.

I was the first to launch and my trusty Wildthing rose quickly into the air. Immediately I knew this was going to be fabulous flying with no turbulence at all. Landing was also a doddle with no rotor to talk about. Roger launched his Pshyco, followed by Mark with his Mini Graphite and Willow.

Roger left us after about an hour but Mark and I stayed on. As the day progressed, the wind did pick up just a little but the big thermals came rolling in and Mark was having a blast, taking the Mini Graphite up really high before powering down to perform HUGE loops and whistling past the slope face at high speed.

All to soon is was time to pack up and walk back to our cars, but we just know that if there's a north or north westerly blowing, we'll be going back there.

Here's the video

Steve

HIRWAUN COMMON from Chuck Glider on Vimeo.

Mooching on Meio

19th February 2012

Mark, Phil and myself met up at Meio for a few hours flying and we also met up with Andrew Dowden, who Phil and I had spoken with on the modelflying.co.uk web site forum. Andrew hadn't flown the slope before and he had been given an old Zagi chevron wing which he had a go flying. Chris joined in with the fun a little later and apparently, after Phil and I left, the big thermals came through and Chris was able to fly his Dogan F3B for about 40 minutes away from the slope and over the flat top of Meio.

Here is the video of Andrew Dowden making his first slope flight, Phil giving his new Speedo its maiden flight, and Mark flying his trusty Willow F3F

MOOCHING ON MEIO from Steve Houghton on Vimeo.