The SRFC gliding guiders fly at Coombes, Ashurst and at local slope soaring sites.  E-gliding thermal soarers are the most popular in the club varying from 1500mm to 4000mm spans and come in a variety of types from EPP to balsa and glass ships.

The aim in the group is to encourage participation in the art of gliding and it doesn’t matter what it is you are flying, just enjoy yourself, try to improve and join in the competitions when we run them.

From 2023 there will be two gliding competitions:

  1. the midweek competition will continue as before with electric thermal soarers of up to 2.5m
  2. a new single type of model competition to be run once a month at Ashurst 

 

The club’s midweek competition is run in a similar manner to the BMFA’s the biggest difference being the size of the models, the BMFA flies two classes (Open – up to 4000mm and a restricted size of up to 2000mm). SRFC’s competition is limited to flying 2500mm.

The new single type competition will be for electrified RC derivatives of the free flight Kiel Kraft Caprice with a standard power train. The competition will see all models launched at the same time and in each round the first two to land will be eliminated, once two are down the remainder will land and relaunch and continue in like manner till only one is still flying – the winner. The one with the most wins in the year will be the annual competition winner.

Slope soaring has been popular in the club and we are lucky to have so many locations on our doorstep. The Slopehunter website is a very good source for finding slopes throughout the UK but particularly so for Sussex and the South of England. Our main local slopes on the South Downs are:

  • Chantry
  • Beeding Hill
  • Mill Hill

Further afield to our east are:

  • Devil’s Dyke
  • Ditchling Beacon
  • Itford
  • Firle Beacon
  • Bopeep
  • Long Man (licence required)

A little bit of gliding history