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Mach Loop - Wales July 2014


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After a 3am start Monday morning, I drove 4.5hrs to North Wales from Gatwick to one of my fave places in the UK.

The Mach Loop near Machnylth for some Low Fly photography for the week.

 

Unfortunately Monday was a wet and cloudy day and by 3pm, had to abandon as visibility was so poor.

But it wasn't a total Blank.

 

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The next day was eventually called Tucano Tues! As good as it was to see so many planes through, (9 Tucano's)

this restricted others coming in.

 

If you look closely you can see the pilots white gloves giving "devil ears" salute.

 

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Although did have a Typhoon, (which i missed) & full Swept Tornado.

Even got a wave!

 

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And another Hercules

 

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And a pair of Hawks.

 

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Weds was another washout. One Hercules through at 11:20 and then the cloud level dropped below the mountain top I was standing on and couldn't see a thing!

 

Weather looks better for tomorrow so fingers crossed.

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You had linked to the thumbnails Sean, sorted it for you :) My favourite are the Hawks.

 

Lovely photos, were these with the new lens? It must be quiet tricky capturing them, how fast do you think they're traveling?

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One of these days I'll get over there! Its definitely on my to-do list! I've done some photography at RIAT before now, and that was damned hard! Jets 700ft away, under full afterburner ... !

 

What length lens were you using?

 

Lovely photos!

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Would love to go up ans watch those, is there another name closer than Machnylth  as Google Maps doesn't find Mach Loop !! Where do you park and is there much walking and what degree of gradient?

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Thanks Rich for the edit. I realised I had linked the thumbs and was trying to change them but it said I wasn't authorised?

 

In answer to the questions, yep the above photos were with the new 300mm f2.8 IS (mk1) lens.

First time I have used it properly, so very happy with the results.

The Hawks come through between 400 & 600mph so use a shutter speed of 1/1000.

The Tucanos & Hercules are slower, but you have to drop the shutter speed to 1/250 or lower to get prop circles so it is quite hard to get sharp shots.

 

The Typhoons & Tornados aren't 'allowed' to use after burners in the loop but they are still doing 600mph!

 

A really good site for finding details on the Mach Loop is http://www.aircanon.co.uk/themachloop

If you look for Cadair Idris on google maps you will see Cad West and Cad East.

There is a large (25 cars) lay-by on the main road through.

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Some good cockpit photos there, considering the speed they're travelling at you must only get 1 or 2 seconds to take the shot? Must be more difficult panning them than motorsport?

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Yep, they are really hard to pan. With Motorsport you can see the defined line they are going to take being the track.

With these they are coming through so fast and going higher or lower through the mountain pass.

Motordrive comes into its own and you have more throwaways than keepers!

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