Unknowingly, I photographed a flying formation for Outgoing Chief of Air Force “Final Flight” ceremony.
On 11 March 2016, I was out hoping to photograph RSAF planes – particularly, F-15SG. Went out at 10am and till 12pm, all that’s in the sky was C130 and AH64D Apache doing flypast along Punggol coastal heading towards Sembawang Airbase.
Knowing a quiet day would mean some event or ceremony is going on for F-15SG Sqn.
Surprisingly, at 3:05pm, hearing 5 Eagles took off at a very close interval from my home in SengKang! This is very very rare take off, the last time they took off so late on a Friday afternoon was for SAF Day rehearsal. Hoping they will return in formation, I grabbed my gears and head out!
As I have been spotting/observing F-15SG flight time for a long while, at the “X” mins, they were still not returning. Unknowingly, I have struggled myself for countless “wait another 10mins…”
And eventually almost on the 2 hour mark… the F-15SG returned in 5 ship formation over Paya Lebar Airbase (PLAB). Snapping them while watching them breaking away one after another through my 500mm lens… after all broke off. I saw F-16C! I questioned myself… “was it a mixed formation…?” Seconds later… more F-16C and F-16D flew “all over the shop” (sky). I “stunned like vegetable” for a while…. Imagine having about 10-12 jets in the sky and trying to choose which to snap was a challenge!
@mbe_photography, our member also saw it said there were F-16s breaking out formation behind the F-15SG.
Initially, I thought could this be the rehearsal for RSAF Open House in May?? Will they be rehearsing every week? But soon after, I learnt that there was a “Final Flight” ceremony for the out-going Chief of Air Force at Paya Lebar Airbase.
Enjoy the gallery!