SAAF Museum Flying Day 2018-09

The South African Air Force Museum houses exhibits and restores material related to the history of the South African Air Force.

The museum is divided into three locations, AFB Swartkop outside Pretoria, AFB Ysterplaat in Cape Town and at the Port Elizabeth airport.
AFB Swartkop is home to the headquarters and largest of the three museum locations, occupying at least five hangars.

It contains a number of Dassault Mirage IIIs, Dassault Mirage F1s, Atlas Cheetahs and various other historical aircraft as well as aviation-related items on display such as ejection seats, uniforms, aircraft engines, aircraft weaponry and a Cheetah C flight simulator.

Aircraft on display

Aerospatiale Alouette III
Aerospatiale Puma
Aerospatiale Super Frelon
Atlas Cheetah E
Atlas Cheetah C
Atlas Impala Mk.I
Atlas Impala Mk.II
Atlas XH-1 Alpha
Avro Shackleton
Blackburn Buccaneer
Boeing 707
Canadair CL-13
Douglas DC-4
Dassault Mirage III BZ
Dassault Mirage III CZ
Dassault Mirage III RZ
English Electric Canberra T Mk.4
Fieseler Storch
Lockheed Ventura
Mirage F1 AZ
North American Harvard
North American Mustang
Patchen Explorer
Paterson Biplane
Pilatus PC-7 Mk.II
Westland Wasp

Above Sourced from Wikipedia

The Museum Flying day was also attend by two very imported Gentleman on the South African Airshow circuit, one being the Head of Airshow South Africa and the other, Airboss for Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD2018). We used the Opportunities to catch-up on AAD2018 and the 2019 Airshow Season. We can’t spill the beans yet, but one of SA cities complaining about not getting an Airshow, it’s coming in 2019!
According to the Head, Airshow South Africa, The Big Aviation Event for 2019 will be AERO SOUTH AFRICA that is to be hosted at Wonderboom Airport in July 2019 and in 2019 we will see more airshows across south Africa. Full 2019 Airshow calendar will be released in November.

Aircraft normally based at AFB Waterkloof temporary moved at AFB Swartkop due to Waterkloof being cleared out to make space for AAD2018

The SAAF museum Open Flying day, started off with the “Spirit of Flight”10km Run/Walk Race and a Fun Run at 6:30. 100’s attended and completed “Spirit of Flight”. Good so see the Museum hosting other activities on the Base
The flying day it self was well attended, however we hoped for more. The flying comments at about 09:20 after inspection was done on the runways and taxiways to check for any of the Fun Runners left something behind that could be hazardous to the Aircraft. The Flying start of activities started of with the normal parachute jump.

The dry Hi-veld winter left the base grounds extremely dry and dusty, creating some spectacular affects, but also a bit of a problem if you were nearby.

The All’o with the unique sound also graced the skies over Swartkop Air Force base

Although the Crowd was less than hoped for, they enjoyed the day with the Friend SAAF pilots always willing to chat and answer questions. Many photos and videos was taken by the crowd and shared all over social media