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.
A couple of years ago I picked up a second hand Dynaflite Bird of Time from a guy down in Paignton, Devon with the intention of fitting a motor to it. Well I never got around to that and then it got lost in a cupboard until a few weeks ago when I was having a clear out.
The model had already been fitted with a rudder servo with linkage and a elevator servo and linkage. That elevator servo had been positioned just behind the rudder servo up front instead of at the base of the tail fin (vertical stabiliser) as per the instructions, with a bell crank taking that servo's place. The wing joiners had already been assembled also. I had to modify the control rods a little to make them the correct length and solder snap clevises on. I found a 5 cell, 6V NiMh battery pack in my box along with a switch and took a receiver from another broken model, then when it came to balancing the model I had to add another 50 grams of lead into the nose.
So now I just need to find the time and a suitable light wind day to fly this from a local slope, because that is where I am intending on flying this, on those days where there is marginal slope lift and I can hunt out the thermals. So hopefully it won't be too long before I can post a Bird of Time maiden flight video.
I've been wanting a large electric powered glider that I can fly from a flat field or in light conditions from the slope. I already have the Multiplex Heron which is pretty good at what it does and is fine flying in a breeze of less than 10 mph, but I just wanted something larger than its 2.2m wingspan, something with a bit more presence in the air. The kind of model that other flyers look at and go, "oooh that's nice, what is it"? And also it is true that larger models fly so much better, (and easier?) than small models.
I did a lot of on line surfing and it soon became clear that a fully moulded F5J type of model was going to be well out of my budget, particularly when having to add all the other bits and pieces I would need to complete it, like servo's etc. So it was going to have to be a model with a composite fuselage and obechi veneered foam wings, and so it was that after looking at the manufacturers such as Horizon Hobby, (primarily Staufenbiel), Robbe, Topmodel etc, I decided upon a design from the German manufacturer D-Power, the Streamline 350.
The Streamline 350 is supplied as what they call a ARF+, so it has all the servo cables prefitted and all servo control linkages are also supplied, as well as a propeller spinner, velcro to hold the LiPo in place, and a roll of clear tape to tape down the 4 x wing servo covers. There are options for ordering the recommended motor, ESC and servo's, and I did order the D-Power servo's as they were competitivly priced against the KST servo's I otherwise would have fitted. It'll be interesting to see how they compare performance/life wise. I already had a 4 MAX motor at home which I thought would be suitable and had been purchased for another project a couple of years ago and then I never got around to using it, along with a new 60A ESC and another pre used 60A ESC I had lying around in my box of bits, so I'm hoping the motor will be man enough for the job, but I'm sure it will be, and I've bought a couple of Turnigy 4S 5000mah LiPo packs to run it off.
My 1st impressions upon opening the box was that it had been packed well and everything was taped down so that it couldn't move during transit. The wings are covered in Oracover and will need me to go over them with a heat gun as there are a few largish bubbles in places, but that's no big deal. The asembly instructions are only provided in the German language, but they are available in English on line although the experienced modeller shouldn't really need the written instructions as the black and white photo's are enough to go by.
I began by fitting the motor and all 6 servo's, which was easy enough. There I came to a halt as I needed an XT90 connector for the ESC to connect to the LiPo. That has now been delivered but I don't currently have the time to continue due to other commitments I have made. Lockdown meant I wasn't able to see my family who all live 200 miles north and south of me, so I've had to arrange to visit them. There are also quite a few events which were postponed during lockdown and have now been rearranged, so they are taking up modelling time. I also thought I had a 8ch RX spare that I could fit, but it turns out I haven't so I'll be ordering one of the Hitec clones from FRSKY https://www.t9hobbysport.com/frsky-v8fr-hitec-8-channel-2.4ghz-minima-compatible-receiver
So check back and later and see how I'm getting on with this project. Even better still, hit the follow button so you will be notified when I make updates. Please also check out my YouTube channel and subscribe to that also. https://www.youtube.com/c/SteveHoughton/featured?view_as=subscriber
Hey guys. Here is my 1st slope video of this year. In Wales the government have finally removed the 5 mile travelling restrictions and so I am now able to drive to my local slopes. Hooray 😁 So check out this video of my 1st session which didn't go to plan due to a dodgy weather forecast.
Hi Guys - take a look at the video which explains why I went flying last week and why I will continue to fly during lockdown. Unfortunately slopes within a 5 mile radius of me, (the distance I'm now limited to drive), are extremely limited with only SE available, so flat field soaring is the name of the game.
Emjoy the video and please subscribe to my YouTube channel
Hey everyone. It has been a very long time since I posted anything on here and I will tell you why.
I think we had probably the worst winter, flying wise, that I have ever experienced. We didn't have any particularly cold weather, no frost or snow but, what we did have was rain, and lots of it. From October right through to some brutal storms in February which caused nationwide flooding.
I was keeping a really beady eye on the weather forecast throughout this time, particularly on weekends when I knew that I would have some time on my hands to go out flying but, more often than not it would be raining or there was so little wind in the forecast that I felt it just wasn't worth the effort or fuel to drive to the slopes and scratch around for lift in a 5 or 6 mph breeze.
About three weeks ago I did head up the Meio for a short session when we had about 10 mph but we only managed short flights between rain showers so, it was really nice to be able to head up to Manmoel Common with a brisk easterly wind blowing. This was just prior to strict government restrictions coming into force regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, but the four of us up on the slope did keep well apart from each other.
And now, with some spring weather heading our way I'm going to be stuck indoors with no flying for the foreseeable future.
Here is some video of me flying my L215A and a F3F machine belonging to Clive.
I normally wouldn't be looking at the weekends weather forecast until Thursday, however, Nick and I had planned to pay a visit to our slope soaring friends at Slope Soaring Sussex this weekend, and so with hotel rooms to book and a three hour plus drive down there, we've been keeping an eye on the forecast all week.
The forecast isn't great with light winds of 8 - 11 mph from the south ish, and so Nick and I have discussed, and spoken with Paul down in Sussex and we have decided to postpone our trip and look at some possible dates, probably towards the end of September, when hopefully the autumn winds will have kicked in.
The forecast for S Wales this weekend isn't any better really but, it's much worse for those taking part in the PSSA fly in at the Orme in N Wales where the forecast is for a variable breeze of 1 - 3 mph, a final decision on this event will be made on Thursday. It maybe that I can get a couple of hours on Meio on Sunday for some thermal flying from the slope, we'll see. I hope so because I have a very busy August and may not get a chance to fly at all at the weekends due to running a half marathon, visiting my parents and international rugby games, Wales v England and Wales v Ireland which are "friendlies" prior to the Rugby World Cup in Japan this autumn.
So here is a video I made the last time I made the trip to fly on the South Downs of Sussex. Happy flying wherever you are.
I put a shout out on the Slope Soaring in Wales and South Wales Soaring Association Facebook group pages last Friday to see if anyone was going to be about on Saturday to join me in a spot of flying.
The forecast was for cloudy with sunny intervals and a westerly wind of 16 - 18 mph. This would give me three slope options, Rhossili which is a 90 minute drive but the best slope I've ever flown, Mickey's at the Bwlch, (the 2nd best slope I've ever flown), and Eglwysilan Common near Pontipridd. Meio also flies on a westerly, although not very well as the westerly part of the slope is where the slope transitions from south westerly to north westerly, so its curved and has a very narrow band of lift, so I was going to discount this slope straight away to fly from.
The only response to my Facebook shout out was from Nick who asked where I was going to fly although he wouldn't be able to join me anyway. My response was that if there were a few of us then I would head to Mickey's but, if I were to fly alone then Eglwysilan Common would be my choice.
There is very little in the way of car parking on the Eglwysilan road, without having to park a long way away, which is why I tend to head there if I'm flying a westerly alone, but I managed to pull in on a wide ish pull in with two wheels on the grass verge and only a short walk ahead of me. Upon arriving at my favourite spot I checked the wind speed and it was smack bang straight onto the slope and showing 16 - 20 mph. Perfect!
I launched the Genesis foamie wing and that flew fabulously with no sign of any turbulence or buffeting, so I was then glad that I'd also brought the L213 with me as I haven't flown this in weeks due to the lack of wind.
I assembled the L213 and threw it off the hill. It climbed away and there was just enough wind to perform a few aero's and feel confident that I wasn't going to have to retrieve it from the bottom of the hill. I've never weighed this model but it is quite a lump, and it will cruise in a 15 mph breeze but I don't usually like to fly it unless the wind is blowing about 20 mph, preferring to opt for something smaller or lighter for the fun factor in lighter conditions.
Many of the TX settings for the L213 were way out, so I used this session to constantly take off and land and make adjustments to CROW, Thermal and Speed flap settings, and I now think I have these dialled in just about right now.
It was very peaceful on the hill, all by myself, and sometimes the solitude can be nice. There was a couple of walkers who came along and saw me flying but I didn't realise they were there until I brought the L213 around on the base leg for finals and I saw them directly behind me, right in my LZ. Fortunately I had plenty of height and I went around again. Obviously I wasn't going to be able to land directly behind me, and the couple were obviously wanting to watch me land, even though they were completely oblivious of standing in the "danger zone", so I walked over to their left in the hope that they wouldn't move with me, which they didn't, but I took the 213 too far back on the base leg due to a lack of concentration, (keeping one eye on the model and the other on the couple), and I lost the lift. I thought I was going to tip stall and hit the ground with a bang but as fortune would have it I recovered and brought her in OK. Phew!
All in all it was an enjoyable session of flying and I managed to iron out a few of the settings bugs I had with the L213. I do enjoy flying this small, slope and it's perfect on a westerly if there are only a couple of you having to park cars. In fact I'm the only person I know who does actually fly there, others seem to go to Meio and put up with the wind being well off the south westerly slope face.
So check out my video, hit the Like 👍button, share it with your friends on social media and subscribe to my channel, pleeeeeease 😊
A couple of years ago I picked up a second hand Dynaflite Bird of Time from a guy down in Paignton, Devon with the intention of fitting a motor to it. Well I never got around to that and then it got lost in a cupboard until a few weeks ago when I was having a clear out. 
