Silver Creek Airfield is nestled in the foothills of the Magaliesberg 2 Nm east of Buffelspoort Dam (S 25° 48’ 03” – E 27° 30’ 58”) It sports a 1200m tarred runway that is 10m wide (08-26), more than enough length to comfortably handle larger “Blik” aircraft. The approach on 26 is over the trees so if it used prepare to land a bit deep, the runway runs uphill from both thresholds to the centre of the runway

Silver Creek Airfield

Approach 08

Buffelspoort Dam from overhead Silver Creek

Silver Creek has been developed on the 1000 hectare family farm of the late motor giant Lindsay Saker,the farm now belongs to Louis and Lawrene Jordaan. The original dairy on the farm has been converted to a wonderful country style private school the leaners are fortunate to have horses on the property that they have access to.

Private School

Sean Cronin one of the twenty six odd residents on the farm extended a breakfast invites to a few Gauteng aviators, on Saturday 3 February members of the aviation community descended on Silver Creek form many airfields in the area. Thirteen aircraft arrived, one of the residents said “we’ve never seen so many aircraft here at one time”. Sean , his good wife Anthea and friends Elize and Riaana prepared a wonderful breakfast feast for all the visitors.

Breakfast Feast

Visiting aircraft

Visiting aircraft were warned ahead of time to overfly the runway to make sure it was free of animals as the farm is now a very well stocked game farm. Kudu, Wildebeest, Nyla, Waterbuck, Zebra, Rooi Hartebeests, Impala, Giraffe, and Eland are but some of the species that roam the farm freely.

Wildebeest at waterhole

Sean, Louis and Pierre do offer instruction to aspirant pilots who would prefer to learn to fly in a beautiful country setting. Pierre is the CFO at the nearby Rustenburg flight school is a resident of Silver Creek and operates from both Silver Creek and Rustenburg Airfield.

Sean Cronin in his Bat Hawk

Visitors from the Air

A great morning was had by all that attended and I’m sure that everyone will return if invited again, the residents went all out to make everyone fell very welcome. At the moment there is no formal clubhouse but the residents will always be around to offer a visiting pilot a nice warm cup of coffee and a chat. Special thanks to Sean and his team for making this visit very memorable indeed. And last but not least to Karl Jensen for allowing me to tag along in his amazing Cessna 170