The Krugersdorp Flying Club (KFC) hosted their annual Spot Landing and Airfield Festival. It was an overall great day with the weather playing along very nicely. Many pilots competed in the spot landing competition and there were many classic cars forming the static display.
Flying started at about 10h00 with a couple of Cessna’s, which were then followed by some Beechcraft and other interesting aircraft. Part of the static aircraft was an Antonov AN-2 ‘Daizy’ and four Robinson helicopters. Many of the pilots that competed in the spot landing competition also parked their aircraft on the static display area.
The motor show was also a big success with no less than 20 cars on display. There was plenty to do for the whole family. Vendors sold toys for the kids, Karel Zaayman from the Aviation Shop also was present with many of aviation finest collection up for purchase as well as lunch and many other interesting crafts and memorabilia. An Alouette III helicopter gave flips to visitors, showing them the beautiful scenery around the airfield.
All things considered, it was a brilliant day. There was a very good turnout of aircraft and cars, offering something for the aviation fan as well as the petrolhead. There was something to do for everybody and it was near impossible to be bored while looking at all the aviation spectacles. Well done to Henco Van Niekerk on winning the spot landing competition. We look forward to next year’s edition!
Spot Landing Participants
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The South African Airforce Museum Airshow is set to take place at Airforce Base Swartkop in Pretoria on Saturday 7th September 2019.The Officer commanding of AFB Swartkop confirmed with Aviation Central the official date has been set for the 7th September and NOT the 31 August 2019.
We look forward to working with the SAAF and the Museum as we get ready for another successful airshow that will once again take place over Pretoria skies.
Tickets this year will cost R80 over the age of 16, ages 12 to 16 will be R30 and under the age of 12 free.
Keep an eye out on our social media pages for more information on the upcoming Airshow.
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The 125th Rand Easter Show has once again entertained Gauteng residents with raw power of the South African National Defence with the South African Navy, Army, Airforce and Military Health Service all present at the Expo Centre Nasrec South of Johannesburg.
SAAF Silver Falcons fly overhead the arena
The Capability demonstration was once again a major draw card to the Rand Show as it always is and run for the first four days of the opening of the show. Unfortunately with the absence of South African Airforce helicopters as the choppers were still on operational duties in Mozambique and Malawi.
15 Squadron Agusta A109LUH on static display
We were blessed with great weather for the first 3 days of the event including the validation day before the opening of the event as their was predicted rain showers and overcast weather for the duration of the morning shows. The final day was unfortunately rained out.
2 Squadron JAS39D Gripen flown by Major Lee-Roy ‘Shinobi” Goosen and Major Kevin ‘Saffron’ Chetty
2 Squadron didn’t disappoint with the presence of two Gripens opening the event. Major Mohua “Dobaman” Vundla with navigator Kevin “Saffron” Chetty and in the second Gripen was Major Lee-Roy “Shinobi” Goosen kept a tight formation flypast as the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula arrived on the podium to address the public on the official opening of the Rand Easter Show 2019.
2 Squadron Gripens flown by ‘Dobaman’ and “Saffron” in the first gripen and “Shinobi” in the second gripen
“I am delighted and honored to be amongst the men and women in the uniform-our country’s armed forces – during the official opening of the 2019 Rand Easter Show. Our soldiers have been patriotically exhibiting and showcasing their capabilities at this crowd – pulling event without fail since 2011 and endeared themselves to visitors from all walks of life, educating our people about the miltarys role in society and towards the defence of our constitutional dispensation.”
Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula
” The platform that the Rand Easter Show affords the South African National Defence Force is key to exposing the citizens of Gauteng and the country at large to the capabilities, state of the art technologies and the career opportunities the abound within our national defence force.”
Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula
” It is through the participation of the SANDF in events such as this one that the aspirations of young men and women–from Eldorado Park, Soweto, Tembisa, Diepsloot, Brynston, Alexandra and Dainfern- in fact throughout the country, ignites them to serve the country. “
” The Rand Easter Show has over the years been a gathering place for visitors who have proven to be owerawed by the dedication, hard work and precision with which our soldiers carry out their duties as showcased through the various capabilities demonstrated in these arena lawns.”
The capability demonstration se the theme this year as a deployment of reaction forces to support a convoy ambushed in a foreign territory. Two Ratel 90 ammoured vehicles gave support fire power as well as a lone 2 Squadron Gripen with simulated airstrikes. Simulated mortar strikes echoed in the arena as the crowds were awered of the pyrotechnics set off by the army engineers. All while this was happening a bridge laying was complete during the mock attack.
A 44 Squadron Casa 212 flown by Major Ashley Naxhe and Major Nick Green and Loadmaster Flight Sergeant Ramajela who dropped skydivers from 44 parachute battlion with a designated landing zone in the arena. The Casa 212 then gave a beautiful fly past over the arena as they excited the special rules west area of Johannesburg.
44 Squadron CASA 212 Paradrop44 Squadron Casa 212
The cockpit ambassadors of the South African Airforce, Silver Falcons of team 82 led by Major Omphile Matloane, Tiaan Stander, Corne Deventer, Bheki Shabangu and the soloist Major Sivu Tangana flew their 5 ship Pilatus PC7MKIIs.
Silver Falcons in the ‘Vixen’ FormationSilver Falcons in the ‘Cobra’ formationSilver Falcons in the ‘Starfighter’ formation
Other arena events on the program included presion drills from the SA Army and Navy. The now popular Navy gun run, a Military Police anti hijacking display, SANDF Marshal Arts demonstration. The SANDF K9 unit and field patrol. And finally the new act on the SANDF the Land Drover of the Army Technical Corpse which is demobilised and mobilized under 10 minutes. Also a favorite at this year’s event.
Thank you kindly to the Rand Easter Show organizers. We look forward to next year’s 126th event.
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Ultimate HELI, a well respected operator that flies fixed wing aircraft and helicopters out of Grand Central Airport. Grand Central Airport which is just up the road from the heli- port, located near the Alan dale off ramp in Midrand.
Bell 206 (Photo by Vincent Nagel)Agusta A109 Grand ZS-BAX (Photo by Vincent Nagel)
Sunday the 9th December 2018 saw the official opening of the heli port with conjunction with National Airways Corporation (NAC).The gloomy Sunday morning saw invited guests and media being shown around the world class facility.
Agusta A109 Grand ZS-BAX (Photo by Vincent Nagel)
A number of helicopters visited the facility during the course of the day, while others have now taken up as residents at the heli port. Some of the helicopters that one could see was a number of Robinson R44s,Bell206 Jet Ranger, a Airbus H125, an Agusta A109,A119,Bell 430 and a Huey belonging to airshow performer Menno Parsons.
Photo by Camry De LormeBell 430 (Photo by Camry De Lorme)
Photo by Camry De Lorme
Bell 206 ZS-RVP (Photo by Vincent Nagel)Airbus Helicopters H125 ZS-OCA (Photo by Camry De Lorme)Bell 206 Jet Ranger (Photo by Vincent Nagel)Bell 206 & Bell Huey(Photo by Camry De Lorme)
Photo by Vincent Nagel
Bell 430 (Photo by Vincent Nagel)
The heliport will have space for about 30 choppers and, since Ultimate HELI currently has 12 of its own, that leaves plenty of room for those that are corporately or privately owned. Roseveare knows that at least six or seven property owners within Waterfall own a helicopter, so they can now negotiate convenient storage space with the company.
Robinson R44s (Photo by Vincent Nagel)
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Thursday day two of AAD2018,saw a bigger influx of trade visitors then day one of the event,the media were kept busy with a number of briefings and different subjects to photograph and report on.Much of the morning,we spent going through each of the halls and seeing the different defence industry’s showing off their products to the world.
A visit to the western side of the base,we had the opportunity to capture pilots and ground crew as they made their way to aircraft for the validation flights for the weekends Airshow.Most impressive capture today was six Gripens on the apron. A sight you don’t see to often at South African Airshows.The rest of the validations were spot on and some great pictures and airmanship was seen!
Rostec suggests using automobile leasing scheme to renew Russian helicopter fleet
The Russian fleet of civilian helicopters numbers about 1,800 helicopters, over 60–70% of which have been operated for 25 years and longer. Most of those helicopters were put into operation as early as at the beginning of the post-soviet period, and a considerable part of the aircraft was purchased by air carriers in early 1990s. According to the aircraft register, the Russian fleet mostly consists of Mi-8 helicopters. Due to the long-standing need to replace a part of the Russian helicopter fleet, Rostec suggests measures that would facilitate purchase of new aircraft for air carriers.
“We are expecting that renewal of the helicopter fleet will be supported by the state program to facilitate purchase of new aircraft for air carriers, similar to the one implemented in the auto industry,” said Director of the Aviation Cluster of Rostec Anatoly Serdyukov. “A take-back program can be developed, and a leasing scheme may be used. For instance, an old helicopter will be taken in as the first payment, and an air carrier will receive a new helicopter in return.”
Canon AAD2018 to Aviation Photography
We joined the Canon team at the Royal Elephant Hotel & Conference Centre near AFB Swartkop, Pretoria. This workshop included the way of Aviation Photography with Justin de Reuck, South Africa’s top Aviation Photographer. The workshop was well attended and we as a team learnt so much and can improve our skills to Aviation Photography. Thanks to Canon and Abri Kriegler
Stay tuned to our Facebook page for updates on the final trade day tomorrow!
The Africa Aerospace and Defence day one of the trade day finally arrived, visitors from across the world have made their way to Africa’s largest trade and airshow in South Africa. This is the 10th annual AAD trade and Airshow taking place of its kind.
The official opening of the event took place near the movements terminal building at AFB Waterkloof, where President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed invited guests and media.
He mentioned “In support of the industry, he outlined the many initiatives to maximise the value of the defence industry, notably the Defence Industry Strategy developed by the National Defence Industry Council, a Defence Sector Charter developed to open space for private participation by small and medium black enterprises and a defence industry fund that was launched in June this year as a funding mechanism for industry.”
Aircraft arrivals continued from Gripen to Hawk and SAAF Helicopters. The cockpit ambassadors of the South African Air Force, The Silver Falcons were busy throughout the day from a 9ship flypast of PC7MKIIs and a validation of their display. The Airforce of Zimbabwe K8 also flew its validation display during the course of the day.
2 Squadron Gripen
2 Squadron Gripen
2 Squadron Gripens
Silver Falcons
85 Combat Flying School Hawk MK120s
16 Squadron Rooivalk
Airbus H125
We look forward to tomorrow, keep a look out on our Facebook page for updates.
Attention All Flight schools or Aviation Academies
We at Aviation Central are running a campaign to help making young and old wanting to enter the Aviation industry life easier by having a list of schools and academies available to them on Facebook and then internet. This will run on our website and shared to our Facebook page.
Flight school listing on Aviation Central
Example of what the listing will look like
We are compiling a list of Flight / Aviation related schools in Southern Africa, to be added to the listing is Completely FREE! We are the perfect platform for this list as we are the Aviation related Facebook page with the most likes and followers in southern Africa (Excluding the Airlines) and most of our audience are the Aviation loving public. This include the Public that wants to enter the Aviation industry. This New Pilots, Cabin crew or any other Aviation related entity. The listing will be on our website, with a pinned link to our Facebook page. (Our Facebook page has the most visibility over our website)
Information we need from you to add you to our listing.
We will have 8 advertisement spaces on the directly listing page (On the sides of the listing table) where we will be placing an image adverts (Provided by you) with a routing to your website when someone clicks on the image. We will once a Month post that image on our Facebook page with a link to your website and or Facebook side. You are welcome to send us 50-100 words text to include with the posting of your Advertisement image. For more information please contact Admin@aviationcentral.co.za
Flight School Event share on Facebook R150 per share (e.g. Open day)
Are your school hosting an event where you want maximum public awareness?
Create an Facebook event page or send us a link to a website containing the event information, send us 50-100 words text to go along with the share and we will share your event for you. For more information please contact Admin@aviationcentral.co.za
Rent our Facebook cover image R150 per day
For Maximum Facebook exposure
As mentioned earlier, we are the perfect platform for this list as we are the Aviation related Facebook page with the most likes and followers in southern Africa (Excluding the Airlines) and most of our audience are the Aviation loving public. This include the Public that wants to enter the Aviation industry.
Our Facebook page is extremely busy and being official Media Partner to Africa Aerospace and Defense, running the official Airshow pages for Swartkop (SAAF Museum airshow) and Rand Airshow also increases our Facebook page visibility. Aviation Central Facebook book page has a Daily page reach of 40 000+ Facebook users (During peak airshow season this goes up to over 100k per day) We have an active “Likes” of 25 000 + (Aug 2018). For more information please contact Admin@aviationcentral.co.za
*Please note that Aviation Events, e.g. Airshows, Fly-in’s and competitions will get preference on double bookings.
We are excited to announce that we will be making out Facebook cover image space available for organisers to promote their event on Aviation Central.
Aviation Central (AC) is a Facebook page that mainly focus on the promotion of Airshows, Air Races, Fly-ins and Radio Control events in South Africa and some of our neighbouring countries.
We endeavour to bring as much news and updates to our 27 000 and growing supporters, and our page attracts over 19 000 unique Facebook users daily.
AC has the most likes, followers, and page views on Facebook than any other active aviation related Facebook pages (including magazines) in Southern Africa, with the exception of airlines.
Our target audience is mostly the non-aviation professional who don’t always have time to search for events, and who brings their friends or family to airshows for the day and the plane spotters standing behind high airports walls to catch a glimpse of arriving and departing aircraft or just the guy looking up into the sky each time a plane goes by.
Over the years we have also build up relationships with event organisers and the countries display pilots and keep up with their every move.
With our ever-growing audience, we want to keep them informed about events as we receive information, therefore we require show and event organisers to keep up updated with calendars, posters, and any other news and highlights of upcoming events.
In order for us to help you promote and report on your event, we also have costs to cover so we decided to make our Cover image space available at a small cost.
The cover image is a prime spot on any Facebook page and it’s available for rent to organizers of aviation events ONLY. The rest of our event promoting, all remains as is and FREE.
The cost will be linked to peak airshow season, mid and low seasons.
To see for yourself go to www.facebook.com/AviationSA
Below is an example what the page would like with the Langebaan show poster.
Our Cover image can be yours. Each day is from 7am till the next day 7am and is on a first-come-first-serve base!
Some quick facts form Facebook statistics on Aviation Central – September 2018
Number of people who saw any of our Page posts (unique users) 289253
Number of people who saw Page posts in news feed or ticker, or on our Page’s timeline (unique users) 22137
Number of impressions that came from all of our posts (total count) 2130149
Number of times users saw posts via stories published by their friends (total count) 2935248
Daily: Number of people who have seen any content associated with our Page (unique users) 38624
We will be doing two posts on this prestige event, one focusing on the Airshow side of things and a 2nd focusing on the full event.
Francois Hanekom
Lt. Col. FrancoisHanekom From SAAF got the DON TILLEY “Safety in Aviation” Award for his roll in Aviation Safety at Airshows 2017, He was involved on the safety side of things at a few airshows during 2017 in South Africa and Botswana. He was also the Airboss for the SAAF Museum Airshow 2017. Well deserved award!
3rd Place went to Lowveld Air Show hosted by Kishugu. The 2017 Airshow season was not easygoing for the team at Kishugu as the show had to be moved after a tropical storm was moving in and was on its strongest on show day. The team made an good call to move the show to an later date. What a show it was! Well-done to the team at Lowveld Air Show 2017.
2nd Place went to one of my favors for the 2017 (and 2016) year.
The Winner of the 2017 Airshow of the year award goes to Adrenaline Show 2017
Adrenalin Team
Christian Maiorana, Chris Briers, Mark Mansfield and all the Rest! Well done guys, and as Athol said, you set the bar so high, you will have to go to all extream to get the 2018 award. What made them pull to the top was the well timed end to the show on the Saturday evening
