Silver Creek Gorge Fly-in – Pancakes in Paradise

By Andre Venter

Silver Creek Gorge Estate, nestled in the foothills of the Magaliesberg 2 Nm east of Buffelspoort Dam, hosted a very successful pancake fly-in on Saturday 24 October.

View of Buffelspoort Dam from overhead Silver Creek

Some intrepid aviators were so looking forward to the event that they decided to fly in on Friday afternoon and set up camp under the beautiful trees that line the large perfectly manicured apron.

In anticipation of the 80 odd aircraft that made their way to Silver Creek, the residents decided to employ the services of a professional pancake maker, just as well as over 1000 pancakes were served on the day. All the scrumptious fillings were supplied by the residents of Silver Creek, there was no shortage of choice, if it has been used on a pancake somewhere you could probably find it there.

What would a good pancake, or ten, be without some really good coffee? Silver Creek residents graciously outsourced this critical service to Wayne Langford, the founder of “Coffee-on-the-move” who is himself a resident of Silver Creek. Wayne also became a fully-fledged member of the aviation community when he successfully completed his LSA licence during lock-down.

Silver Creek sports a 1200m tarred runway that is 10m wide (08-26), more than long enough to comfortably handle larger “Blik” aircraft. The approach to 26 is over the trees so generally the aircraft land a bit deep which is not a problem as the runway runs uphill from both thresholds to the centre. If anyone is planning to visit on a quieter day please take care as there may be game on the runway. The Estate is home to 65 Wildebeest, 45 Zebra, 32 Kudu, 30 Eland as well as Giraffe and Rooibok.

Silver Creek Gorge Estate has been developed on the 1000 hectare family farm of the late motoring giant, Lindsay Saker, the farm now belongs to Louis and Lawrene Jordaan. As the nearest school is quite a way away in Hekpoort the original dairy on the farm was converted to a wonderful country style private school. Learners are taught in a tranquil setting and even have access to the horses that are kept on the property.

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

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 feel very welcome and might I add well fed. Silver Creek Gorge was squarely placed on the South African Aviation map with this amazing event. Pilots attended from as far afield as Barberton in Mpumalanga and Bela-Bela in Limpopo Province.