This week signalled the annual winter trip to the Mach Loop and this time I got to see F15’s!
I travelled up on the Wednesday and pitched up at the campsite, I had the place to myself. I’m not surprised though it was pretty chilly! I cheated and went into Dolgellau for a takeaway for dinner. On Thursday I went up Bwlch for the day. It was very windy and the Vango Adventure Tarp wasn’t able to withstand the wind and I had to take it down otherwise it would have flown back to the campsite! On Thursday we had Hawks, Tornado’s and Tucanos go through, I left before the Chinook went through. I was frozen; even the Jetboil was struggling. When I got back to the car park my car was telling me if was -1C, I can only guess that it was at least -5C up on Bwlch. I had another takeaway and camp fire that night.
Tucano T1 – ZF348
Tucano T1 – ZF348
Tornado GR4 – 046
Turn left after the next junction
Tornado GR4 – 059
BAE Hawk T1 – ZK019
A little wave from ZK025
On Friday I went up Cad West and the Vango Adventure Tarp redeemed itself there. I managed to pitch it and it didn’t fly away or even pull the pegs from the ground. Although, the ground was frozen and the pegs took some effort in putting into the ground. Again there was a cold wind and the Jetboil continued to struggle. On the hike up the hill we had F15’s go through the loop, we had a couple of minutes to get the cameras out and ready for their next pass. The F15’s came and went and were replaced by Hawks and then we were treated to two passes by two Hercs all before lunch time 🙂 After lunch all we had was a single Tucano before the wind made sitting up there less fun and I packed up and headed back to the car, I suppose even jet pilots like to knock off early on a Friday. Did get buzzed by a Hawk in the car park typically.
F15 Eagle
F15 Eagle
F15 Eagle
F15 Eagle
F15 Eagle
BAE Hawk T1
BAE Hawk T1
Lockheed C-130 Hercules
Lockheed C-130 Hercules
Lockheed C-130 Hercules
Lockheed C-130 Hercules
Lockheed C-130 Hercules
Lockheed C-130 Hercules
These two days were my first outing with my new lens the Sigma 150-600 C. It’s a heavy lens and I’ve discovered that it’s tricky to pan a fast moving jet when at a focal length of 300mm+ I’ll need more practise. I’ve had a few decent images so looking forward to getting out with it more and seeing what I can capture.