A day on the Mighty Bwlch

A day up on the slopes of the Bwlch. Was lucky enough to catch up with some of the F3f Welsh Winter League Racers while they patiently awaited the clouds to lift. Was a cancellation day for them as by the time it cleared and the wind swung involving a move around to another of the sites slopes it was to late for them to hold enough rounds for a successful race. So a few fun flights allowed me to get some footage of them in action.

F3f is a race discipline where they race high end pure slope carbon fibre and fibreglass gliders usually around the three metre span. The models are mainly from Europe although Les one of the pilots does make them here in the Uk. The race involves two pylons at a set distance apart on the slope. The pilots launch and climb out to a countdown timer where they have a set time to get as many laps between the pylons as possible. The models in good conditions can hit well over 100 mph screaming mere feet above the lip of the slope making use out of the strong lift blowing up the slope. These models can range from easily 2k up to 3 or 4K for some of the high end racers.

In the right conditions a very fast and adrenaline driven discipline. Something I lightly dabbled in back in the early 2000s when a groups of us called the bwlch our local site with the south wales soaring association.

Gliding is still quite active at the bwlch with many a pilots travelling some good distances in from England to enjoy the powerful lift the site can offer. Today most of the lads racing were from England and had made the journey just for the event.