Talk:Silver Falcons

Accidents and incidents
In the late 1950s or early '60s (possibly around the time South Africa became a republic - 1961), a Silver Falcons F86 crashed into some houses in Forest Hill, Port Elizabeth, killing several people on the ground. The pilot ejected and landed safely in dense bush near the airport. The incident occured while the aerobatics team was rehearsing for an air display to be held on the following day. I was watching from the balcony of our flat and saw two planes "touch"; shortly thereafter one plummeted toward the ground, the pilot ejected, and a column of black smoke rose from the impact area. Does anyone else recall the accident or have more details?

Elio1 (talk) 14:41, 19 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Little info on this out there. Not the Falcons, but on 15th July 1960 2 Sqn Sabre 379 and 354 mid-air over Southdene Village, Port Elizabeth. Lt. Bothma in 379 ejected and the plane crashed, 354 apparently landed. --NJR_ZA (talk) 15:34, 19 February 2012 (UTC)


 * It was not a Silver Falcons plane - they never flew Sabres, further the SAAF at that time operated Canadair CL13B Sabre Mk6, the only time they had F86s was in Korea where the SAAF loaned F86Fs from the USAF. From the history section of this article the SFs did not exist at that time anyway.


 * The incident you remember is: Canadair CL13B Sabre Mk6 #379, on the 15th July 1960, written off near PE after colliding with #353. The pilot Lt HJW Bothma survived. Source - "85 Years of the SAAF" by Winston Brent. Roger (talk) 15:43, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for that! I mistakenly assumed the aerobatics team were involved, because the planes were doing aerobatics... Elio1 (talk) 16:17, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Teams
The teams need dates. Do we have sources for earlier than team 70? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 16:23, 17 June 2013 (UTC)
 * All dates since Team 1 is at http://www.silverfalcons.co.za/history/falcon-teams-to-date.html --NJR_ZA (talk) 19:55, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

"Astra" no longer the correct name?
I thought that after a recent avionics upgrade, the PC 7s operated by CFS are no longer designated 'Astra'. Do the Silver Falcons still used the Astra though? Nathan121212 (talk) 14:21, 3 November 2013 (UTC)


 * No, the remaining "Astra" versions are not flown at all and have been advertised for sale. Their avionics is unservicable - the manufacturer no longer exists so the "upgrade" was basically having the "factory standard" avionics installed. (It seems the SAAF learnt an expensive lesson about the risks of ordering non-standard options from "fly-by-night" suppliers.) Most of the remaining "Astra" variants are in fact not airworthy for a variety of reasons - when they started in service they were used for ab-initio training and a significant number of airframes got "bent" by inexperiences students. These days the initial training (to PPL-level) is done by a civillian contractor using Cessna 172s, only then are the pupes let loose on the PC-7s. I'll remove the "Astra" name from the article now. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 14:39, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

New paint scheme
If anybody has images of the Silver Falcons with their new silver spinners, please upload them so this article can be updated with the current scheme. Nathan121212 (talk) 09:35, 17 March 2014 (UTC)