Air Shows

Swartkop’s importance has not only been due to the operational use and historical significance of the base. There has been a long history of air shows at this base going as far back as the Union parades of the 1930s. A number of important SAAF air shows were staged at AFB Swartkop over the years and during the late 1990s and the early part of this century the SAAF Museum hosted very popular air shows (about every 3-4 months at one stage) at AFB Swartkop.

Overview of the attending crowd

 For a number of years early September saw a significant air show at AFB Swartkop for a number of years. Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, this dried up and the last major air show held at AFB Swartkop was during September 2005. What an air show that was! - at the time the SAAF was winding down operational use of the Atlas Impala and it was also clear that the Denel Cheetah C was reaching her twilight years of operational service with the SAAF. Most of the SAAF’s front line aircraft and a number of civilian aerobatic teams were on the bill. Little did we know that this was to be the last SAAF air show in Gauteng for a number of years.

On to 2009

 Due to the scheduled major rehabilitation of AFB Waterkloof’s runways, the 2006 instance of the bi-annual AAD event was re-located to AFB Ysterplaat in Cape Town. This has left a dearth of SAAF displays in the Gauteng region for a couple of years. It is most fortunate that the CAF, Lt Gen Carlo Gagiano gave authority to the SAAF Museum to host an air show in Gauteng. The date was set as the Saturday (12 September 2009) after the Wings parade of the 11th of September as a number of operational aircraft would be at AFB Swartkop for the parade and thus would be available for the air show. The event would not only be an air show but would include other interests (mostly male orientated.) The open storage area north of the fuel depot was turned into an off road track and numerous visitors enjoyed the powerful turbo-charged off-road jeeps bouncing over the dirt tracks.

Many firsts:

The 2009 Swartkop air show saw many notable firsts and the end of an era. The firsts from the SAAF consisted of:

• The first public display in Gauteng of the SAAF’s new jet aircraft types: - the SAAB Gripen and BaE Hawk. Both these aircraft featured in static as well as the flying displays.
  
• The first public display of the Casa 235 in the new overall grey colour scheme.
  
• A flying display of a Falcon 50 from the SAAF’s VIP flight. The VIP aircraft types are not often seen at events and even more rarely flown as part of a display.
  
• Duo display by the SAAF Museum’s Mirage IIICZ flown by Lt Col, Glenn Warden and Denel’s Mirage F1AZ flown by Lt Col Johannes (Blokkies) Joubert.
  
• In addition, a fitting end (well more the twilight of) to a long illustrious career with SAA of Scully Levin saw a formation display of SAA Cargo Boeing 737 -300 duo that was absolutely mind blowing to witness.