Tag Archives: HarvardCafe

COVID Aviation Trips – Rand Airport

By now most of us have been absolutely deprived of aviation. Unfortunately all airshows for 2020 have been either postponed or cancelled. This leaves us with almost no aviation action, or does it?

In the coming weeks, we will be looking at different smaller aviation spots that can help scratch that aviation itch that has been annoying us all during this lockdown.

In the third installment in this series we are looking at yet another smaller airport in Gauteng. Rand Airport is a great spot to feel the wind coming off aircraft and smell the turbine exhaust.

What makes Rand great is the fact that it has more than one great spots. The first of these being the SAA Museum located at the Eastern side of the airport.

The museum has many historic SAA aircraft like 737s, DC-4s and 747s where one can get the opportunity to not only admire them from the outside, but also from within.

At the museum one can also find the Dakotas Pub and Grill. From the restaurant one has a nice view of Runway 29 takeoffs and landings as well as some taxiway action.

The second spot at Rand Airport is another Harvard Cafe. Just like the one at Grand Central, this restaurant offers a nice view of the apron, with great food and a play area for children.

Rand Airport is home to many beautiful aircraft like the Flying Lions, Cows Pitts, Goodyear Eagles, Menno Parsons’ collection and many more.

P51D Mustang
Springbok Classic Beech 18
Cessna 208A Caravan ZS-NKG
SAPS Airwing Airbus H125 ZS-RNR
Boeing Stearman
Bell 222 ZS-HDK
Bell UH-1H Iroquois Serial 11162 ZS-HLZ 

This airport makes for another great outing during these times where aviation seems to be a scarcity. With the SAA Museum and Harvard Cafe one can easily get two unique trips out of this one spot.

COVID Aviation Trips – Grand Central

By now most of us have been absolutely deprived of aviation. Unfortunately all airshows for 2020 have been either postponed or cancelled. This leaves us with almost no aviation action, or does it?

In the coming weeks, we will be looking at different smaller aviation spots that can help scratch that aviation itch that has been annoying us all during this lockdown.

The first spot we’ll be visiting is Grand Central Airport. Sporting a Harvard Café with a lovely view of the apron, this makes for a good spot to get your dose of Vitamin A(viation).

The Harvard Café offers a wide selection of drinks and food ranging from cool drinks to beer and burgers to sushi.
The children’s play area at the Harvard Café makes this a great place to bring the whole family.

Grand Central Airport is a smaller regional airport with no commercial airlines operating out of the airport. This does not mean that there isn’t much to see though.

Many pilots based at the airport take to the skies here over the weekends. Here there is no shortage of Cessna’s, Robinson Heli’s and even the occasional King Air and Aero Commander 500B as seen below.

As the name suggests, Grand Central is very centrally located, making it not a very long drive from most locations in Gauteng.

Photos taken at Grand Central recently: