Topic: South Wales Slopers

Would love to hear from people flying in South Wales (visitors and locals!) Would be great to be able to bump into more people on the slopes around here

Cheers
Clayton

A very informative website for south welsh flying information SWSA   

 I will be at the Bwlch at around 11am tomorrow if anyone is interested in some flying.

Weather looking good, I'll be there.

Just got back from a bit of flying in very temperamental wind at the Bwlch with 'Andreww'.
We started on Icecream slope and it was very crossed from left to right. After struggling there for a bit, we walked over to Mickeys and the lift was as poor and very crossed from right to left.
Andy from Cornwall popped up to join us at Mickeys for a bit and it was good to meet him and fly with someone new.
While we were flying on the paragliders launch area, I contemplated moving round to the southern most point of Mickeys as it seemed that the wind would have been straighter on the face. I decided that I had walked enough and stayed put.
It was a very challenging day and it was a great learning experience to see how to fly (or not to fly ) in less than ideal conditions. It was also good to see how a couple of different aerofoils on chevron wings worked.

Does anyone have any suggestions for flying sites in todays wind? I think it was Westerley.

Has anyone flown the 140m high peaked east west hill at
Rhossili/Llangenith.
I'm kinda wishing I had gone for a drive there today instead of the Bwlch

Had a good day with Clayton and Andy from cornwall, learned a lot any way  Thanks

Hello Lads! was great fun today sorry i had to rush off!
cheers
Andy

Hope the rest of your holiday goes well Andy. See you next time

Mickeys slope is SW, if you go right to the end of the track beyond where the paraglider fly is the Mickeys westerly slope, if you go even further theres a bowl which we haven't tried yet but looks like it should work for the inbetween Icecream and Mickeys Westside wind direction, this bowl would be hell of a walk if the gate is locked. There's always the Meio for westerlys just outside Pontypridd, OK if your desprite   , I only ever go there during work if I need to test a plane, I don't go there to fly as such.

I've seen the Meio on the website, will have to give it a try, living in Barry its closer for a quick afternoon session.

One of these for South Wales would be good, if any one got the time and skills.
Sites guide

Large range of wind directions predicted for this week, swinging from southerly today, moving clockwise all the way to easterly on Saturday. Pick a day for a different slope? Weather also looks fine most of the time but we will see

Off work Wed , Thurs this week, might try to get up again, especially if the Venom comes tomorrow, build it Wed fly it Thurs, otherwise if the wind is lighter than last week its the Wolf K10 minus ballast.  If its really light, might try Philip 600 thermal.

I'm up the Bwylch tomorrow, with a wing. Maiden my new Venom.

Andy

Flew the Wrecker this arvo, can't believe I was the only one there! Plenty of lift, beautiful sunshine, just me and some buzzards 
Had to wear a jacket as the wind was pretty chilly though.
Probly go back tomorrow arvo as the forecast says the same right through til Sunday. Great week for the Bwlch
Wish I had more than just a chevron wing.
 Tough slope for a maiden Andy, it's a long drive to the bottom
Hopefully see some more people flying tomorrow

I'll be there tomorrow, got two wings now, have took the ballast out of the Wolf K10, its a nice light wind jobbie now, would have been today but had to build the Venom. Been up the field with a bungee this evening, great.

Just got a message that it is 20knots on the wrecker and also got a pass from SWMBO. I'm off up the Bwlch :colm:

Andy had 'the drive' to finish off a great days flying
Tip for AndyW, If your gunna fly inverted, do it where you can make a mistake and recover without losing sight of the model down a BIG cliff.
hope the Venom survived

Survived with out a blemish !!, in fact, I launched it and flew it to the car, saved carrying it!! couldn't believe there was so much lift down there. Where are the photos? Another good day.

Is anyone flying at the Bwlch saturday?

I believe a few of the Midlands guys will be there Saturday.

Anyone up the Bwlch today, and if so, what sort of wind strength was it?

Simon

I'll be up after work to spectate/oggle!!.  So make it last at least til 3 o'clock!!

Anyone up the Bwlch today, and if so, what sort of wind strength was it?

Simon

probably between 3 and 15 mph today Simon ............generally 10ish most of the day ....went really bouyant later on but only about 5-8 mph

Had a go up the MEIO today with my Venom, wind was to far to the East, had a good walk, but also a good fly wind was gusting 35kts, a bit much really. But its closer to home than the Bwlch, not as much choice for wind direction though.

Where do folks fly above Caerphilly, and Machen?, can't find any maps or directions

Machen is N to NNE, its an excellent slope but doesn't tolerate much of a swing in wind direction. Access can be a problem unless you know the back roads. Theres no formal agreement with the farmer, I've never had a problem there and spoken to the farmers a couple of times, if you go there just use comman sense, there are alot of sheep roaming loose so its a case of dogs on leads, take rubbish home etc. Theres also the tump at Machen if you wanted to try DSing, its not crunchie friendly and be prepared for a lot of walking if you attempt it, its not very big but its very steep and a few land out / crashes and you'll realise how steep   it works in a N and S.

Caerphilly, if you mean the Garth is an E/SE slope, parking can be an issue for more than half a dozen cars (take into account for walkers already parked). Its bit of a trek but the few times I've been there its been good.
 If you mean the slope over looking Nantgarw Hill and the aero engine works I've not flown it but the last time we looked into it the farmer wasn't that impressed with the idea so we never pursued it.

Thanks for the info, will have alook next month again, will be away for ten days from Friday, so no flying locally.

Anyone flying in Wales this weekend? I've gotta get some practice with my Lumberjack before next weekends BMFA EPP60 Nats

forecast is looking pretty light at the mo  :(

bumma :(

really doesn't look good at all  :(
Maybe they got it wrong?

I went up to the Bwlch today on the off chance that there might have been enough wind to test fly the lumberjack.
I ended up walking all the way to the bowl south of Mickeys.
The only breeze that there was, must have been above the altitude of that little bowl, because there was nothing there.
I reckon I lost some weight today 'cause that is a heluva walk.
I also persisted in throwing the LJ off all sorts of hills and climbing up and down to fetch it. At one stage I had enough nose weight on it to replicate the stall - spiral dive that hapened on the wrecker (which was due to too rearward CG). I have decided that it is very difficult to test a plane in buggerall lift.
From the look of the turbines on my way home, the breeze picked up a little bit as I was driving home this arvo. 
Oh Well
Next time

Went for a fly up at Mickeys today. The clouds were ripping passed at my house and the turbines on the way up were scooting around so I thought I was in for a good bit of fun. Got there and really had to scratch around for lift I met Alan (from Nanty) who was helping Chaz to learn to fly. It is always good to bump in to people up there and it happens too sparingly.
Alan and Chaz went home and I was flying for a while and really had to get creative to maintain enough airspeed to fly.

I think I might be losing my mind lately as I have been making a few silly errors. The other day I launched my x-it with the radio still programmed for Lumberjackness, yesterday my x-it vanished and today I launched without turning the LJ receiver on!!! Fortunately for me, the LJ isn't trimmed perfectly nuetral and it gently arced around to the left and went nose in on the face of the hill at the same height as me.
Great thing about foam, I got to the plane, switched it on, and launched it. No Worries!

As I was getting ready to leave, I met a bloke from Norway (Thor Bear [english translation]) who had popped in hoping to see heaps of people flying as he had seen the Bwlch many times featured in videos on the internet. I told him that I was very surprised at how few people fly on the slopes and the most I have ever seen flying on a non-comp day is five including myself.
After chatting for a while the wind picked up enough for me to launch and let Thor Bear see some flying at Mickeys so his walk up wasn't totally wasted.
He is going to try to get here for the Welsh open next year as he is a glider freak and can't wait to get back with his gliders. If not the open, it will be a holiday for flying at some point. Looking forward to flying with him when he does.

He said he bought a Miniwing from Mike-Y at some stage, so you might have his details Mike?

Must have been a long time ago as I've not cut MiniWings in over 18mths, probably more than that even.

thought it was a while ago!

I thought it was going to be another big wind sunday tomorrow.
I just checked XCweather and it looks like the centre of the system is parked right above south wales and the wind is swirling around us. I start work at one again tomorrow and the wind doesn't settle to a decent westerly until the arvo.

I have a day off Monday and the wind looks consistantly westerly 12 - 15mph all day. Might give Rhossili a crack

The last few days I have been flying local in Barry, here
bikehike.co.uk - Course Creator  this was great for SE winds, but will work all the way round south to West, I was flying a Venom wing but Allula's and Weasels would be really fun.

and here
bikehike.co.uk - Course Creator

If you are racing Sunday, Back of Wrecker Bring Ballast!!

and some waterproofs.....The forecasts I've seen would have us over the rocks on Mickeys SSW and SW I've seen.

I'd be suprised it goes ahead