On the 9th August 2008, Singapore celebrated its 43rd birthday at the Marina BayFront.
With many rehearsals leading up to this grand finale, I had been following them over the saturdays, giving me a good time to take different photographs from different locations, angles, perspectives and understanding the flight and performance pattern of the F16 Black Knights.
I was there about 2 hours before the pre-parade segment, managed to find a spot on the Esplanade Bridge. The weather looked great on one end, however, the Eastern side was dark and cloudy. Initially, I thought, it would be fine, the weather would clear soon but it wasn't to be, soon dark rain clouds filled the skyline and started drizzling. As time goes by, nearing towards the start of the parade, it drizzled, stopped, drizzled, stopped and with strong windy conditions.
Nevertheless, the pre-parade segment commenced in the bad weather conditions. The erratic drizzle and poor weather didn't deter the people to move off, even though there were significant movement on the Esplanade Theatre and waterfront. The Red Lions Parachuters had a very tough task on hand, with strong winds constantly changing in directions, we had to salute them for their courageous efforts and skills for giving Singapore's 43rd Birthday a wonderful performance !
Even though the weather was slowly clearing, there were still the drizzle and stop situation. The Singapore Flag Fly Past came and everybody around the Esplanade was cheering it loud ! The bad weather wasn't going to dampen the mood there !
Even though the weather was slowly clearing, there were still the drizzle and stop situation. The Singapore Flag Fly Past came and everybody around the Esplanade was cheering it loud ! The bad weather wasn't going to dampen the mood there !
Soon, the moment a lot of us had been waiting for. The F16 Black Knights flying in to salute the nation on its 43rd Birthday ! A grand finale performance after many hard hours of training. It was very popular with everybody there at the grounds and they were cheering for it even though the afterburner was really loud with their low level flying and high altitude climb. The best birthday gift was the HEART and everyone of us cheered !
Happy 43rd Birthday Celebrations !
