March 2015

As the weather gets better it means a few more days out with the camera. A two-day trip to the Mach Loop would see me experience first hand, and even manage to capture with the camera, something I've been after for 30 years or more. The Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights.

Tuesday 17th March - St Patrick's Day

Although I was in the Bwlch car park by 7am, the weather really couldn't make its mind up what it was going to do, so after the 5th coffee and bit of a recce of the various valleys, It was decided that the plan would be to go to Cad West for the afternoon. On the walk up we were hillsided by a pair of Tornado's, but as it turns out they were high through the pass, and the light at Cad West before 2pm this time of year is difficult to manage to say the least. With a quick unpack of the camera I did manage a quick shot...

Incoming...


So in position for the afternoon shift, and the talk on the hills was of the visiting A10's from Europe that were on a detachment to RAF Lakenheath. More rumours than a classic Fleetwood Mac album from the seventies, even to the point of actual times due in the loop...and a "Man from Lakenheath was here yesterday"....Hilarious. Needless to say, they never showed all week!

First pass was a Hawk T2 100yrs anniversary, then a pair of very sporting Apache AH 64's followed by another pair of high Tornado's.

The scanner then piped up with 41 SQN carrying out a low level evasion exercise in LFA7, so we would likely get their retiring Tornado special on its penultimate flight before RTP (Reduce to produce) to RAF Leeming.

41 (R) Test & Evaluation Squadron ZA600

The sortie was basically two Typhoon jets chasing a Tornado through the valleys in an expensive game of "hide and seek", so to get the Typhoons through as well was a bonus. Shame the light was awful for all three passes.

After a pair of Tucano's, again in awful light, the scanner came alive with a number of Tornado's asking for some low level time in Wales, so hope was that we'd get some of them. For a change, the weather got its act together and the sun finally came out and lit the valley floor. This gave me a chance to test out my new mugs... To get the significance of the mug just google "I'm with stupid Tornado".

   

With over half a dozen of the Marham jets in Wales, we only managed to see one through the pass, Marham 21, but a great pass in the best light of the day is better than 5 passes in the dark!

Marham 11

So with the light now fading, and most of us staying overnight, the talk turned to what we'd be doing tonight. Curry in the Red Lion? A bit of night photography? A few beers?

After a quick scan of twitter there seemed to be the possibility of a large solar storm, meaning it may be possible to see the Aurora Borealis from the UK. After many times of trying to catch it before in the UK, and being jinxed by the weather on each occasion, would I finally get to see them in Wales?

The forecast looked the best I've ever seen it for the UK, with us only needing a KP7 for it to be visible in the UK , and with the forecast now tipping the needle almost off the scale, could this be right place, right time?

After a Red Lion curry, in a mass convoy we all headed to Llyn Cregennen, which is behind Cadair Idris, and we all looked north. Quite an eerie place in the dark. Still doubting I would see anything, I set the camera up and pointed north, and a faint aurora was visible, but only through the camera. So back to the van for a coffee and a warm and try again in a little while.

Then, at around 11pm, a hazy green strip started to form above the Barmouth estuary, and "spikes" started shoot into the sky, this was it!

So finally, I'd seen it... Amazing to think that two of the things I've always wanted to see since I was a kid, fast jets in the valleys and the northern lights, have both been witnessed within half a mile of each other...

So after the Northern lights had faded away, and hopes of another light show faded with it, a short trip down the mountain road would see us arrive back at the Torrent Walk bunkhouse in Dolgellau just before 2am, ready for a 6am start back to the Bwlch.

Wednesday 18th March

After only a few hours sleep, the long walk to the top of the Bwlch Yr Oerddrws pass seemed to take forever. Obviously, once at the top, the main topic of conversation was the Aurora Borealis, and with many great images from all over northern Europe appearing across the social networks.

Traffic wise, it was a bit of a slow day with only a few Hawks from RAF Valley, a Hercules from RAF Brize Norton and a "day saver" RAF Marham Tornado in the late Winter sunshine.

So another trip over, and by far the best of the year so far... I think I might struggle to top the Aurora Borealis this year as my highlight of the year, but who knows.

Here are my pick of the stills from the 2 days in the Mach Loop...