Low flying in Wales, UK

[Lowflyer]

Well I'm new to this forum so be gentle! Thought I'd share a few photos I've taken over the last couple of years. There's a part of Wales which is designated Low Fly Area 7 (LFA7). The most popular location is known as the Mach Loop, American Aircrews refer to it as the Snowdon Roundabout. It's basically a series of flowing valleys which is approximately 21 miles in length and as suggested is in the form of a loop. Sometimes aircraft do two runs of the loop and for the fast jets it takes roughly 4 minutes to complete one lap.
So here's a few shots for now and you can see where some of your tax dollars go when the F15 Strike Eagles are about !

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[Sinister_kid]

Damn... your shots are really good.

How fast was the shutter speed on number 5?

 

[Lowflyer]

Hi Sinister kid, shutter speed on No.5 was 1/800th, in general most people shoot at 1/1000th, depends very much on the available light and conditions, the weather can be very changeable within a short period of time.

 

[PatrickHMS]

WOW!

You get better shots of a military plane in flight than most people get of it back at the base, on good old terra firma.

All of us here really appreciate what you do up there!

"Off we go, into the wild blue yonder..."

+

 

[UUilliam]

Wales? Tax dollars?
Dont you mean Sterling Tax...
Eitherway, Nice images but damn... those carbon emissions...

 

[citjet]

Outstanding! Im more interrested in your lens choice. Because of my lack of a fast telephoto, Ive shied away from moving subjects and this kind of photography is right up there with my interrest(s). I have to stick with the ground based shots.
We handle quite a bit of military aviation at my place of work and its not uncommon for me to be pulling chalks and raising stairs on F/A-18s with a camera slung on my shoulder.

 

[Tappout]

#4 is AWESOME! For the co-pilot to be able to look out the window and pose for you...you must have been close!

 

[Kaye]

Wow...very clear shots. I like that you can even see the pilots in some of them.

 

[df3photo]

very nice!

 

[Lowflyer]

Hi citjet, the lenses I use are the Canon 100-400 mm and the 300 mm F4 prime, sometimes I use a 1.4 converter so there not that fast to be honest. I wouldn't shy away from giving it a go, it's more to do with having a fast shutter speed using A1 servo and just practicing getting a half decent panning technique.

 

[altitude604]

awesome shots!

really like the one of the Tornado.