{"id":10622,"date":"2025-09-25T00:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T23:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gacetaeronautica.com\/gaceta\/wp-102\/?p=10622"},"modified":"2025-09-25T12:53:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T11:53:20","slug":"the-quest-for-the-chilean-mach-loop-goes-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gacetaeronautica.com\/gaceta\/wp-102\/the-quest-for-the-chilean-mach-loop-goes-on\/","title":{"rendered":"The quest for the “Chilean Mach Loop”<\/b> goes on…"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the nearly twenty years we’ve covered Chile’s most relevant national commemoration, the Great Military Parade (Gran Parada Militar)<\/strong>, we’ve tried to find new and different locations to illustrate its flying component away from traditional viewpoints, and this year we propose an exciting “near air-to-air perspective”.<\/p>\n

\"Pudahuel<\/a>
Arturo Merino Ben\u00edtez airport is always a sure bet for take-off and landing shots as well as for static views before operations start, as illistrated in this early morning shot of five Antofagasta-based F-16AM Viper at the II Air Brigade (II Brigada A\u00e9rea) flightline (photo: Carlos Ay, 09\/19\/2025).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Our initial report back in 2007 visited several photographer preferred locations around Commodore Arturo Merino Ben\u00edtez international airport<\/strong> (Aeropuerto Internacional Comodoro Arturo Merino Ben\u00edtez), while in 2008 we first tested Kings Park (Parque de los Reyes)<\/strong> to catch parading aircraft approaching at low altitude about 2 NM north of O’Higgins Park (Parque O’Higgins) parade ground.<\/p>\n

\"2020<\/a>
Four Halcones aerobatic team Extra 300L approaching Escuela Militar for the spartan ceremony held there amidst strict sanitary precaution and to the sole purpose of honoring Chilean armed forces contribution to the national fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Notice Aerocardal’s Leonardo AW109 at Vitacura’s German Clinic (Cl\u00ednica Alemana) rooftop helipad (photo: Carlos Ay, 09\/19\/2020).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Our curiosity to identify “near air-to-air” locations first bit while Chile’s social outbreak in October 2019 and the COVID pandemic reduced the ceremony’s splendor and made it a bit unsafe or unhealthy to go out with expensive photo equipment, thus limiting our options to reduced human traffic areas such Potato Hill (Morro La Papa)<\/strong>, where we managed to picture the Halcones aerobatic team approaching Las Condes’ Military Academy (Escuela Militar) for the 2020 event.<\/p>\n

\"2022<\/a>
2022 was our first attempt to obtain “near air-to-air” shots of parading aircraft from Recoleta’s Cerro San Crist\u00f3bal, but results were below our expectations for a number of reasons. Large aircraft, such as Sentry AEW.1 serial number 905, came out reasonably clear; but smaller and faster jets, like its scorting F-16C and F-16D Vipers, turned out blurry and cluttered by urban background (photo: Carlos Ay, 09\/19\/2022).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

In 2022, we managed to register a few “air-to-air like” images from Saint Cristopher Hill (Cerro San Crist\u00f3bal)<\/strong>, but results were not the best due to limited lighting (partly cloudy skies) and photo equipment limitations to picture aircraft flying 1.7 NM away from our location.<\/p>\n

\"Pan<\/a>
Our first expedition to a prospective Chilean Mach Loop north of Santiago set its destination on top Cerro Pan de Az\u00facar, where an impressive westbound view of the Santiago Basin provided unobstructed air activity sightings from Pudahuel (illustrated here) to various parade holding patterns northwest and northeast of Santiago (photo: Carlos Ay, 09\/19\/2024).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Does a Mach Loop exist in Chile?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Once the nation restored some of its democratic stability after two failed attempts at constitutional reformulation, 2024 research revealed the bulk of (but not all) formations usually flew over the Mount The Region (Cerro La Regi\u00f3n) range <\/strong>before entering Greater Santiago’s from the north on approach to O’Higgins Park.<\/p>\n

\"Chilean<\/a>
The quest for the Chilean Mach Loop begins! Framed by Cerro La Regi\u00f3n, two F-16 “Block 50” speed into urban Santiago proposing a view which would become an icon for future September festivities (photo: Carlos Ay, 09\/19\/2024).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Inadequate planning led us to set our sights on Sugarloaf Hill (Cerro Pan de Az\u00facar)<\/strong>, a 3,038 ft. distinctive landmark at Chicureo’s southern entrance (a suburb 12 NM north of O’Higgings Park) and climbed it on September 19 without any preliminary exploration… only to find out it was fairly inadequate for our purposes: Hampering our camera sensor’s ability to pick fast moving planes, the bulk of the formations flew 1.5 or more nautical miles east of our position, with sunlight on their tails and dark clouds plus obscured Andes mountains on the background.<\/p>\n

\"Huitre<\/a>
This year’s location marked a meaningful improvement compared to 2024: Better natural lighting and orientation and camera altitude relative to aircraft, as illustrated by these two F-16D Vipers flying with the ever impressive Cordillera de la Costa background (photo: Carlos Ay, 09\/19\/2025).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

But the expedition was not a complete failure: We managed to get at least a few good shots of aircraft flying right over Pan de Az\u00facar while on a lengthy initial approach to Pudahuel for landing south to north on runway 35 due to the unusual weather… and we got a glimpse of what photography at a Chilean Mach Loop<\/strong> would look like if we found a location better oriented and closer to the flight path into the O’Higgins Park!<\/p>\n

\"El<\/a>
Leading Chilean Air Force’s (Fuerza A\u00e9rea de Chile, FACH) second and main airborne element, two Tigre III formations (one F-5F and one F-5E each) flew higher and a bit too far west from our position in El Huitre (photo: Carlos Ay, 09\/19\/2025).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Improved research, project discussions with MyyHobbys CEO, Jos\u00e9 Ignacio Bertea (himself a Chicureo resident for over 20 years), and reserving time for an exploratory excursion brought about a better prospect located on Thorn Tree Hill (Cerro El Huitre)<\/strong>, a 2,982 ft. elevation 2 NM east of Pan de Az\u00facar in the same range as Cerro La Regi\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado<\/a>
The rotary wing element (2 of each: S-70 Blackhawk, Bell 412 and UH-1H Huey) fly over Huechuraba with the Colorado Hill (Cerro Colorado) and its radar site in the background (photo: Carlos Ay, 09\/19\/2025).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

After climbing it for the Tuesday 15 Preparatory Review (Revista Preparatoria) rehearsal, a precise path was followed to reach El Huitre’s summit within one and a half hour from our start in south central Chamisero (one of several suburban developments in Chicureo) as Gran Parada aircraft started taking off from Pudahuel and El Bosque air bases at midday on Friday 19.<\/p>\n

\"El<\/a>
Definitively the best shot we got this year from our Chilean Mach Loop candidate at Cerro El Huitre: KC-130R Hercules serial number 991 descending through 3,000 ft. into Santiago. Notice vulture right above engine #1 and the Coastal Mountain Range (Cordillera de la Costa) some 18 NM to the west (photo: Carlos Ay, 09\/19\/2025).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

By the time we reached the summit, aircraft were flying their holding patterns in three different areas: Elements #1 (five Gamebird GB-1s and seven T-35 Pillanes) and #4 (one S-70 Blackhawk and two DHC-6 Twin Otters) were running race track circuits between eastern Huechuraba and northern Recoleta, while #2 (four F-5 Tigre IIIs, 13 F-16 Vipers and individual KC-135 Stratotanker, KC-130 Hercules, Boeing 737 and Gulfstream IV) did it over Colina and #3 (two S-70 Blackhawks, two Bell 412s and two UH-1H Hueys) did so between Renca and eastern Quilicura.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Several aircraft formations were nearly impossible to photograph from El Huitre, including seven T-35 Pill\u00e1n trainers from the Air Force Aviation School (Escuela de Aviaci\u00f3n) and the operation Polar Star III (Estrella Polar III) trio (all of them holding over Huechuraba), a KC-135 Stratotanker and a Gulfstream IV operating too far away or only holding patterns at high altitude (photos: Carlos Ay, 09\/19\/2025).<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

As stated above, not all formations provided adequate “photographic posing” close to El Huitre: Elements 1 and 3 were essentially hiddend behind Cerro La Regi\u00f3n, element 4 did so farther than last year (when we caught them from Cerro Pan de Az\u00facar) and all transport jets in element 2 avoided our position by entering urban Santiago and the parade grounds from a northwestern direction.<\/p>\n

\"Huitre<\/a>
Header photo<\/strong>: Are we there yet? Evidently not, but these two F-16AM Vipers from Antofagasta show promise. With a little more preparation and maybe a couple extra hundred milimiters in zoom, results will continue to improve (photo: Carlos Ay, 09\/19\/2025).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

In spite of these auspicious results, the quest isn’t complete: We look forward to new opportunities to visit Cerro El Huitre or other view points in the area (for instance, Cerro La Regi\u00f3n, to capture aircraft in the Huechuraba holding pattern) hoping that Chilean air formations will give us new and improved poses to convert covering the Great Military Parade from the Chilean Mach Loop into a new tradition.<\/p>\n

\n

References<\/strong>: This story was partly produced with Chat GPT support to improve English editing quality and topographical translations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the nearly twenty years we’ve covered Chile’s most relevant national commemoration, the Great Military Parade (Gran Parada Militar), we’ve tried to find new and different locations to illustrate its flying component away from traditional viewpoints, and this year we propose an exciting “near air-to-air perspective”. Our initial report back in 2007 visited several photographer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[6,201,226,76,92,183,238,68,83,32,237,86,185,227],"class_list":["post-10622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air-shows","category-defence","tag-aeromilitaria-chile","tag-bell-205","tag-bell-412","tag-boeing-707","tag-dhc-6-twin-otter","tag-escuadrilla-los-halcones","tag-extra-300","tag-f-16-fighting-falcon","tag-f-5-freedom-fighter-tiger-ii","tag-great-military-parade-chile","tag-gulfstream","tag-lockheed-hercules","tag-pillan","tag-sikorsky-blackhawk"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gacetaeronautica.com\/gaceta\/wp-102\/wp-content\/uploads\/3025\/09\/2025-09-19-16-51-25_edited.jpg?fit=1600%2C901&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1JKRl-2Lk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2380,"url":"https:\/\/www.gacetaeronautica.com\/gaceta\/wp-102\/f-16s-rule-in-chilean-great-military-parade-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":10622,"position":0},"title":"Thirty Vipers monopolize the 2013 Great Chilean Military Parade","author":"Carlos Ay","date":"Thursday 26 September 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Nearly 8,500 troops, 100 aircraft, 35 motorcycles and 20 armoured personnel carriers (APCs), including 655 Chilean service women and about 100 foreign military and police troops, were featured in a new edition of Chile\u2019s traditional Great Military Parade (Gran Parada Militar). 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