The South West Wales Soaring Club (SWWSC) is based in the Swansea area and services an area extending from Carmarthen in the west as far east as Brecon and north to Ammanford. Originally a hang gliding club, the passing of the years have seen great changes in this respect. Sadly, hang gliders are a rarity on most of our sites now, and without a school in the area turning out fresh talent, the trend is not likely to reverse in the foreseeable future.We are a friendly, informal bunch of people, welcoming of visitors who respect our sites, and always looking for new members to join our club. The club has around 60 flying members of which around half are local. The remaining pilots originate mainly from SE Wales and England. Other visiting pilots come to our sites as a result of reciprocal agreements with Welsh Federation clubs or simply turn up to fly one of our open sites. (Having first acquired and read the site rules.)
Due to the somewhat scattered nature our membership, our sites are seldom crowded. On spring and summer weekends with perfect flying conditions, the number of pilots on our hills often numbers less than a dozen! Having said this, our club is thriving and we hold an informal meeting at the Castle Inn, Pontlliw, on the first Thursday of every month. In addition there are regular committee meetings, lectures, parachute re-packs and social functions. A number of our hills are very large and provide for excellent soaring and XC flights. For the last few years we have done well in the Airwave challenge, and we have pilots who fly in other competitions as well as a sprinkling of Nationals pilots. During summer months, resident school www.flywestwales.co.uk run by Professional Pilot and Chief Flying Instructor Rob Mansley will be seen frequenting our sites offering help and advice as well as from many club coaches or instructors who number amongst our members.
If you are not currently a member of our club but would like the opportunity to fly our sites, please get in touch via one of the methods provided by this web site so that we might provide all the help and information you need.
This evening, I made a phonecall call to the Military Freephone Service(0800515544) to give notice of paragliding activity at Heol Senni tomorow as I have done many times in the past. However, I was informed by the R.A.F. Controller that because it was after 20:00 when I made the call - only a warning notification would be issued to any Military Aircraft using the area. If I had made the call before 20:00 then full avoidance status would have been granted for the...
Due to an urgent security issue with the software I have had to do an emergency upgrade this evening - sorry for those who tried visiting during this period. The site is mainly done, but I have some work to do tomorrow on pages and some info may be missing temporarily....
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