Fast and Low

I have been posting a few shots of butterflies in recent days but for today I wanted to share some other flying machines.

I spent a very cold five hours standing on a hillside in Snowdonia recently in an area known as the Mach Loop where military pilots hone their skills as they practice low flying through the hills and narrow valleys.

Some days there are more fly throughs than others and on this particular day there was low cloud for much of the day which is not what you want. Having travelled quite a way I didn't want to give up too soon and so hung on long after most of the other guys who had been waiting at different spots on the hillside.

My nearest neighbour was just packing away his gear and I was about to do the same when he picked up some traffic on his scanner and radar app and he shouted up that some USAF f15 Eagles were heading into Wales and had requested permission for low flying.

After such a long wait excitement levels increased and hearing that the approaching planes had dropped off the radar meant they were flying low and would soon arrive.

In all four jets came through making two passes each. In all the flying display lasted for no more than 10 minutes but even that short time was enough to make up for the waiting around. It is so impressive to see these incredible machines blast past at high speed and full respect to the skill of the pilots.

By the time they arrived however light levels had fallen and so perhaps the images I captured weren't as sharp as I had hoped but hey, I can always go back another day.