On the same day as Streetfest, the yearly National Runway Cycling and Skating event (hosted by SAFRA and RSAF) was in full swing earlier in the morning. Given a ticket, and not wanting to waste it, I attended the event despite having to wake up early at 5.45am. Not wanting to spend/waste any money on this event (bike rental = S$18), I decided to take my own bicycle for a spin, and take that (estimated) 15-20km route to the event site, Paya Lebar Airbase.
Photos taken in this post is not mine, but from my friend Hans on his Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS3, as I don't have a compact and my camera phone sucks lol. Enjoy ^^.
Leaving my house at 6.15am, it took me about 50mins to an hour to reach the site, and there were already a huge crowd at the entrance, meeting friends and waiting for the gates to open.
The crowd awaits the gates opening.
After clearing the gates, we made our way to the "activities" area, where tents from various sponsors sell/promote their goods, or games for people to play, or at least I think so. Didn't really bothered taking a look though lol.
Here's another one of me with my bike on the runway. I assume that this runway is the landing strip, since we can see all the tyre skid-marks on the floor caused when the aircraft touches the ground at high-speed and apply its brakes.
I really love the sight of the skid-marks. Its simplicity makes it an unique design. Too bad this picture didn't really capture the background well, and if it did, you would be able to see the CBD (Central Business District) area skyline and the Singapore Flyer somewhere on the horizon on the right side.
And on the other side of the photo, we had the start point of the event. We didn't join in the initial flag off, since we expect everyone (most) to be there and it'll be a messy sight (something like people banging each other and mass topples lol). We met another friend, Jason, at this point, and he joined us on the 15km route (he wanted to join his friends for the 6km (slackers), but we somehow psycho-ed him otherwise ^^).
Some aircrafts we see while along the route. The first photo above is the F-16, while the second photo shows one of the C-130.
Along the route they had some water point, where those who are either tired or thirsty can stop and not block others who are continuing.
And this is what it looks like at the water point. Participants just grabbing cups pre-filled with water, while the "host" people top more cups up. 
That's about it for the event. After clearing the 15km route, we chatting a while more before heading home, and yes I cycled the journey back too, but on a different route. Seems that I took a longer route in the morning, even though someone told me it was supposed to be shorter -.-"Overall, it has been quite a fun experience, and I think I'll be attending it again next year, hopefully with a road bike though lol. Time to save up an estimated S$1,800 for a not too bad one. Seriously thinking, I swear I have too many expensive hobbies, and it's really damn hard to maintain them all (or even obtain them in the first place). I really have to cut my interest down ><. Anyway, next post tomorrow (or day after) I'll be doing a Vocaloid Spotlight (haven't had one in a while). Signing out.
4 comments:
Hmmm... As far as I remember, PLAB do not host any local F-16s squadrons. Maybe foreign.
Managed to skip the event ^.^
Nope, PLAB only has F-5s and C-130s, but those F-16s were there as there was an exercise (EX Commando Sling?) being carried out, and I believe they were operating out of PLAB, or at least that's what my friend who is serving NS in PLAB told me.
Tail numbers with 4 digits do not look like local F-16s. Local F-16s have only 3 digits. Plus, there is no RSAF logo.
The only local F-16s with 4 digits operates in America.
Talking about 4 digits, they could be American planes.
Cool I didn't really noticed the number of digits on the aircrafts. The only thing that was on my mind was "ORD ORD ORD" since that was my last week. Anyway, thanks for that piece of information ^^.
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