11.59 am Hawk
We took in turns to stand closer to the edge to look up the valley. I took this picture of the car park below. It had now filled up. We guessed that the other folks on the Bwlch must be at Middle. This is a vantage point about 200 feet below us and may be more sheltered.
We were joined on Top Ledge by a guy from Manchester. His was the caravan that I’d seen in the lay-by below. The wind had battered him as he’d slept in the caravan overnight. He planned to stay in the area to see planes for the next few days. As we chatted we missed the Hawk making the turn into the valley – luckily he shouted out a warning.
This was ZK024, a BAe Systems Hawk 128 T.2.
And it was gone . . .
12.32 pm two Hawks
After the pass of the Hawk we settled back into our routine and tried to drink some of our tea. Here’s Steve trying to keep the wind from blowing all of his tea out of his cup!
We were watching the turn and spotted ZK032, another BAe Systems Hawk 128 T.2.
And it was gone.
As I watched it leave, I completely missed the Hawk following behind…
I tried laying down to get out of the wind.
1.57 pm High flying F-15E Strike Eagles
We took the opportunity then to eat some of our packed lunch and to have some more tea from our flasks.
We could hear jet engines and we looked up above us to see singles and pairs of F-15Es flying way above us. They were making fast passes, breaking left and right and even doing turns to create vapour trail circles.
Here’s the vapour trail circle.
We were always being watched, probably because the birds knew we might leave something behind.
