My Slope Flying Sojourn in the UK
Aviation nirvana awaits on ‘this sceptred isle’.
As a slope flying enthusiast I regularly scour YouTube for inspiration. Movies of the most beautiful slope locations in the UK with some serious flying pass my screen. Now that we are going to tour the south of the UK with our motorhome I will have to take some gliders with me!
On the internet I already check where to find suitable locations. In my experience it’s not always easy to find slopes by yourself that are easy to reach, with acceptable landing conditions and where you will not have an unhappy land owner. At Slople (see Resources below for this and other useful links) you can find many flying slopes, sometimes with info about parking or landing options. Slopehunter has more extensive information on a number of slopes. A spot that catches my attention is The Wrecker, a location in South Wales with several co-located slopes for different wind directions. It’s at the Bwlch mountain — Welsh names can be quite exotic! — just south of the Brecon Beacons National Park which happens to be on our travel wish list. What a place! And driving to the Wrecker will hardly be a detour.
For the rest I will have to see how things go. When travelling with our motorhome we don’t have a rigid schedule, the journey unfolds itself while on the move. As this will be mainly a family vacation I will not be slope hunting.
I could not find anywhere that the European A1/A3 certificates are recognised by the English authorities, so I obtained the English certificate (free) and registered as a drone operator for just £10. The requirements are more or less equal to the European requirements. Unfortunately paperwork is something to be dealt with in these times. But I’m legal now and good to go.
The Motorhome
Our motorhome has a so-called ‘garage’, a huge storage space in the back for large luggage such as bikes. Next to our camping gear I can easily shove in some models. They are packed in a large model backpack that will serve me well if climbs by foot are necessary to reach a slope, and the backpack also provides good protection during transport. A packing checklist will prevent me from arriving at an amazing slope without transmitter, batteries or wing joiner. In the garage I have made a power point where I can connect my charger directly to the 12V household battery. This way I can always charge, even when the motorhome is not connected to ‘shore power’.
Duxford
In the first week we visit the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, close to Cambridge. My son, pursuing ‘aviation studies’ at university in Amsterdam, shares my passion for aviation so he happily joins. Just after parking next to the museum a Hawker Hurricane starts its engine. The sound of a unique airplane is instantly recognised by he and I so straight away we bust off to the airport fence, leaving my baffled wife behind.
While my wife has the motorhome to herself and takes care of the dog, my son and I enjoy the museum for several hours. Every aviation enthusiast should visit this museum, what an amazing collection of aircraft they have here! A tiny sample: U-2, SR-71, F-4 Phantom, Concorde, De Havilland Comet, B-17, B-29, B-52, Avro Vulcan, XB-70 Valkyrie, A-10 Thunderbolt and so much more. Furthermore the museum has a large fleet of aircraft that are airworthy or in the process of restoration.
During the day we see a Hurricane, Spitfire and Texan flying from Duxford airport. Eight halls of aviation candy, both military and civil.
The Wrecker
After another day of museum (this time tanks) and a lovely day on the English countryside we drop our son at Bristol airport as he has to go back to school. My wife and I continue our English tour and head for Wales. The Wrecker is not too far from Bristol, so that will be our next destination. We arrive late in the afternoon and there’s not too much wind, but off course I do investigate the spot. The slope is abandoned, nobody is flying. Facing the north is a straight steep slope where I can imagine some great lift in the right weather conditions. On the left the slope curves into a beautiful bowl that looks suitable for north to east winds. On the back side is a slope facing south. Just east of here there are two other slopes for westerly winds.
Today the wind is coming from the northeast, so the bowl and the north slope should be usable. The upper edge of the slope is quite sharp, creating a vicious rotor in windy conditions. This slope is called The Wrecker for a reason! According to the internet you can avoid the rotor by landing on a high spot on the other side of the road, so you will have to land your plane some distance away or cross the road with some coaching.
I assemble my RCRCM Typhoon, a sporty 2m glider. From the small parking lot along the road it’s less than 100 meters walking until I’m halfway to the bowl. The edge is irregular and the slope very steep, so I do not dare to stand nearer than two meters from the edge. Despite the light wind there is smooth lift over a wide area. I don’t gain much altitude, so the plane does not get overly fast, but with the stunning views it’s a very enjoyable flight!
In this mild wind the rotor cannot be very strong, so I dare to land close behind me. With full butterfly I can make a nice steep approach and indeed the landing is without problems. I enjoy the view for a while, make another flight and then we have to start looking for a place to spend the night.
Westbury White Horse Hill
Two days later I have some time left in the travel schedule, so I look for a slope between the Cotswolds and the New Forest and suitable for northwesterly winds. On the Slopehunter map I do find the Westbury White Horse Hill. Interesting name.
The last few miles to the slope are like many English countryside roads: very narrow, winding and steep. Our motorhome has to work hard, but should be used to that by now. I’m thinking: “Who wants to be in this desolate spot?”, but on top of the hill we are surprised by a big parking lot with quite a few cars. And off course the ice cream cart you find on every tourist location here.
Today the choice is made to fly the AirOne, a motorized F3B glider with a huge speed range, ideal for mountain flying. I assemble the AirOne on the lee side of my motorhome as it’s quite windy. From the parking lot to the slope is a level walk of just 200 meters. Being used to steep climbs in the French Vosges mountains this is so easy, a true ‘walk in the park’. There are two slopes facing W and NW, joined together forming a sort of bowl. The wind is coming from WNW, so both slopes should create nice lift. The estimated wind speed is 15–20 mph, the air is hardly turbulent and flying is awesome. Today I can get more speed in my glider then on The Wrecker, so I can explore more of the flight envelope of my aircraft and do some aerobatics. There also seems to be some thermal activity.
On the NW slope, at the turning point to my right, there is the huge white horse on the slope face, quite a special sight. But also the view around is again amazing. The landing approach is a bit turbulent, but below five meters you get below the rotor and the air suddenly becomes smooth. I make a steep approach with some overspeed to cross the turbulent layer, the landing itself is butter-smooth. After another two flights I am more than happy and pack the plane in the motorhome to continue our journey.
The last few days I make no more flights, but we do enjoy south England. The landscape is filled with hills (something we don’t have in the Netherlands), there’s a thousand shades of green, the pubs have good food and the people are friendly and helpful. I’m afraid this has not been my last trip to the UK. Next time I will surely bring my models again!
©2022 Raymond Esveldt
Resources
- Slople — “Where do you want to fly today?”
- Slopehunter — “a guide to hills in England for soaring model gliders: what the slopes are like to fly at, what wind conditions they work in, how to find them…”
- Imperial War Museum Duxford — “Europe’s largest air museum. Walk through the same hangars and buildings as those who served at RAF Duxford…[g]et up close to over a century of aviation.”
- Kevin Newton’s Blog — This RCSD regular contributor’s excellent page with lots of information about flying The Wrecker.
- Flying The Wrecker (video)
- Flying on White Horse Hill (video)
All images by the author. Read the next article in this issue, return to the previous article in this issue or go to the table of contents. A PDF version of this article, or the entire issue, is available upon request.
