If you mention the Mach Loop to anyone, even people who aren’t AvGeeks, they know what it is. Or at least they know of “The jets in North Wales”. Ever since I was on a coach driving through the Lake District as a teenager and saw a pair of Hercules in a formation next to the M6 motorway the low flying areas were a photography “bucket list” item. On the 7th of March 2022 that wish was delivered, we travelled down to a cold Welsh campsite, pitched our tents and ate Sunday lunch the day before and then the next morning we headed for the hills. Having not hiked in a long time, I found the climb pretty tough, especially with the camera kit I had to carry too. We had a fantastic day with 13 passes including F15s, a Tucano, and Hawks, closing with a pass from a C130J Hercules of RAF Brize Norton. This was particularly poetic as my first sight of low flying were two Hercules back in 2017, and here I was almost five years later at the top of Cad East photographing a Hercules flying down the valley at a low level.
