MACH LOOP HIGHLIGHTS AND BEST AVIATION MOMENTS 2025 -4K

Twenty twenty five was a year of mixed fortune so I'll give you the good bits. The Mach Loop was lucky to see some great visitors from as far afield as Canada amongst our regular visitors from the RAF and USAF. For me there were two magical moments of the year with a visit from a Hawker Hunter flown by a veteran pilot just before his retirement at the grand age of sixty five. Secondly a visit by a KC-135 Stratotanker from the 100th Air Refuling Wing, RAF Mildenhall. This majestic aircraft was something we never thought we'd see flying the Mach Loop, Thanks to the USAF!! March took us to Greece to exercise Iniochos. Aircraft from many Nato countries played their roll in the exercise and were included in the low level sorties. The Hellenic Air Force treated us with a few visits from Andravida Air Base of their F-4 Phantoms which are considered the holly grail these days. A trip to The Lake District bagged some low level passes from a United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster, a real rarity in the UK. The Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford had some stunning displays from many countries notably the Polish Air Force F-16 Tiger Demo Team flown by Major Maciej "SLAB" Krakowian who stole the show with his high energy display. Sadly SLAB's life was cut short only a few weeks later whilst rehearsing at Radom Airshow in Poland. Our annual hop across the pond to America took us to Americas Airshow at NAS Miramar on the first weekend. This was the only show during our visit were we could catch the F-22 Raptor Demo Team performing. Day one it made it to the runway before aborting the demo with a technical issue and second day it managed to take but again aborted the Demo a few minutes in with a problem. Something we couldn’t foresee was the government going into shutdown during our visit which meant for us that there would be no military presence in airshows. We had to cancel our plans for The Pacific Coast Airshow at Huntington Beach and Fleet week in San Francisco. On a brighter note with less traveling we could use the extra days chasing low flying Jets in the sidewinder. Thanks to everyone for your support this year and hope you all get to follow your dreams in 2026. Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already done so Daf