The Mach Loop Just Keeps Giving

[Jim H]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hBLlZ4i6ays&ra=m

Awesome.

[johnymac]

This dropped into my feed yesterday. I watched it, then watched it again. Bloody lovely!

[Keith-9fc7j]

Wow just wow! We were on our way to camping in Shell Island in June. I heard a massive noise and thought our car had broke, it was a pair of low jets doing this sort of thing. Spine tingling!

Edited by Keith-9fc7j on Monday 20th July 22:43

[TorqueVR]

The loop has a bit of form for old stuff. They've had a hunter and Jet Provost though not too long ago and in April 2024 it was the Red Bull DC 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbOHAdUBQaM

[ARH]

Keith-9fc7j said:

Wow just wow! We were on our way to camping in Shell Island in June. I heard a massive noise and though our car had broke, it was a a pair of low jets doing this sort of thing. Spine tingling!

I drive down the Mach Loop road at least once a month and the noise of Jets still gets me.

[Yertis]

Is the 'Mach Loop' the only place where jets exercise at low level nowadays? Back in the 70s and 80s they seemed to be charging around all over the place.

[johnymac]

That's because the RAF probably only have a couple of jets left!

[LivLL]

johnymac said:

That's because the RAF probably only have a couple of jets left!

Well over 100 Eurofighters plus a load of F35 etc... on top.

[Mr Squarekins]

Yertis said:

Is the 'Mach Loop' the only place where jets exercise at low level nowadays? Back in the 70s and 80s they seemed to be charging around all over the place.

I was in Great Langdale recently. The jets were almost skimming the sheep on the hill sides

[shed driver]

Back in the 1980's I was walking in the Peak District when I heard a massive rumble. A vulcan flew below us.

SD.

[andymadmak]

shed driver said:

Back in the 1980's I was walking in the Peak District when I heard a massive rumble. A vulcan flew below us.

SD.

Might have been Johny Tye, who was a Vulcan pilot but also owned Lea Gardens in the Peak District. He had a habit of doing low level fly overs of Dethick, Lea and Holloway... I used to live there and just after I moved in I was a bit shocked one day to have a Vulcan pass over my house at about 150 feet! There goes Johny again sighed my neighbour...

[Yertis]

IIRC 250' was the official minimum altitude but I think this was treated more as rough guide. I remember one Jaguar pilot getting in trouble for flying under some hi-tension cables.

If only Ginetta was here to confirm, or tell me I'm a idiot.

[eccles]

Yertis said:

IIRC 250' was the official minimum altitude but I think this was treated more as rough guide. I remember one Jaguar pilot getting in trouble for flying under some hi-tension cables.

If only Ginetta was here to confirm, or tell me I'm a idiot.

I had a Jolly in one of our Tornados and saw the rad alt down to 90' at one point. It was cutting a corner over a hill near a bunch of hippies in Teepees.

[WH16]

Yertis said:

Is the 'Mach Loop' the only place where jets exercise at low level nowadays? Back in the 70s and 80s they seemed to be charging around all over the place.

There are three main Low Flying Areas

LFA 7(T): central Wales
LFA 14(T): northern Scotland
LFA 20(T): the borders of southern Scotland and northern England

The fixed wing can go down to 100ft in those, and rotary have no low limit, but pretty much the whole of the UK airspace is available for low level navigation (although not as low as within the the LFAs)

We still regularly get all kinds over our house at low level. Mostly Hawks, sometimes F-15Es and A-400s, and a couple of weeks back a very low Chinook NOE in the gulley (valley would be an exaggeration) below me when I was out for a walk.

We are between Chili Lakes and Smokey Joes for any active aircrew reading.

eccles said:

I had a Jolly in one of our Tornados and saw the rad alt down to 90' at one point. It was cutting a corner over a hill near a bunch of hippies in Teepees.

North Northumberland by any chance?

[eccles]

WH16 said:

North Northumberland by any chance?

No, Mid Wales. There was a fairly well known hippie encampment there.

[WH16]

eccles said:

No, Mid Wales. There was a fairly well known hippie encampment there.

There used to be a few tepees up by Rothbury I remember.

[aeropilot]

LivLL said:

johnymac said:

That's because the RAF probably only have a couple of jets left!

Well over 100 Eurofighters plus a load of F35 etc... on top.

Which is a tiny front line fast jet fleet compared with even 20 years ago, let alone 30-40 years ago.

[IanH755]

aeropilot said:

Which is a tiny front line fast jet fleet compared with even 20 years ago, let alone 30-40 years ago.

IF......and its a big IF in make-believe land.........you could get everything serviceable, we'd have about 185 frontline fast jets (137 Typhoon & 47 F-35B - taken from the web) which, when you remember that each is a multi-role aircraft, able to do both precision ground strikes and anti-Air, is probably more worthwhile than being 20-40 years ago with lots of Tornado GR4 sqns (ground only) and a few F-3/Typhoon sqns (anti-Air only), so sometimes quality does have its advantages over quantity.

Of course back in the real world we'd never get those sort of numbers airborne nowadays, nor be able to arm enough of them continually should we start to actually fire stuff at people, but don't worry, we're eventually spending 2.5% so we're saved

[aeropilot]

IanH755 said:

aeropilot said:

Which is a tiny front line fast jet fleet compared with even 20 years ago, let alone 30-40 years ago.

IF......and its a big IF in make-believe land.........you could get everything serviceable, we'd have about 185 frontline fast jets (137 Typhoon & 47 F-35B - taken from the web) which, when you remember that each is a multi-role aircraft, able to do both precision ground strikes and anti-Air, is probably more worthwhile than being 20-40 years ago with lots of Tornado GR4 sqns (ground only) and a few F-3/Typhoon sqns (anti-Air only), so sometimes quality does have its advantages over quantity.

Up to a point......when attrition takes over, and then you are buggered.
The other issue is if in a perfect world, you could get all those Typhoons and F-35B's serviceable at once.....have you actually got enough trained pilots to fly them all at the same time, and I suspect, that is not the case. In an ideal world, you have double the pilot number or more per aircraft to maintain sortie rate.......
Sadly I suspect with the issues with MFTS they might be short of that?