As a lot of these locations are situated high up in the hills, its a good idea to have a good set of walking boots and clothing especially in the winter months. I made my first visit on the 20th December 2007, there was a 25mph wind and the temperature was around -3. I wore a few layers of clothing and a rain proof jacket and trousers, suitable gloves and a nice warm hat that covered my ears, I also had on three pairs of warm socks. A few sandwiches and hot flask is also worth while. A walking pole can be handy as some of the tracks can get slippery.

As there isn't really a time table for these aircraft, its an idea to get there early, we usually arrive there for around 7:30am in the summer months and around 8:30am in the winter. Sometimes you'll get lucky and traffic will start to come through early but some days you won't see anything until late afternoon, some days you'll see nothing.

Here's some information on the aircraft that use the Mach Loop on a regular basis.

The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine combat aircraft, which was jointly developed by the United Kingdom, West Germany and Italy. There are three primary versions of the Tornado; the Tornado IDS (Interdictor/Strike) fighter-bomber, the suppression of enemy air defences Tornado ECR (Electronic Combat/ Reconnaissance) and the Tornado ADV (Air Defence Variant) interceptor. It is one of the world's most sophisticated and capable interdiction and attack aircraft, with a large payload, long range and high survivability.

The Tornado was designed as a low-level supersonic ground attack bomber, capable of taking off and landing in short distances. This requires good high-speed and low-speed flying characteristics. In general, an aircraft which is designed to fly at high speeds usually has poor low-speed characteristics. In order to achieve the desired high-speed performance, an aircraft has a highly swept or ‘delta’ wing platform. However, these wing designs are very inefficient at low speeds where unswept wing are required. In order for an aircraft to be operated efficiently at both high and low speeds, variable wing sweep is a desirable feature, this was incorporated into the design.

The Eurofighter Typhoon benefits from a number of advances in technology and engineering. The aircraft makes extensive use of composites in the airframe with only 15% of the surface comprising metal. The newly developed EJ200 powerplants combined with the aircraft's aerodynamics allow it to cruise supersonically without the use of reheat for extended periods of time even with a normal weapons load. The advanced flight control system and pitch unstable design impart great manoeuvrability at high and low speeds. These, combined with; cutting edge automated defences, advanced active and passive sensors, leading cockpit ergonomics and a reduced RCS instil Eurofighter with more than an even chance of success against most competing aircraft.

The F-15E is powered by two Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 or 229 engines that incorporate advanced digital technology for improved performance. For example, with a digital electronic engine control system, F-15E pilots can accelerate from idle power to maximum afterburner in less than four seconds, a 40 percent improvement over the previous engine control system. Faster engine acceleration means quicker takeoffs and crisper response while manoeuvring. The F100-PW-220 engines can produce 50,000 pounds of thrust (25,000 each) and the F100-PW-229 engines 58,000 pounds of thrust (29,000 each).