Air Crew

The Silver Falcons is the aerobatic display team of the South African Air Force. Their aim is  to inspire the youth, promote aviation and showcase the skill of SAAF pilots to the general  public. The team flies the Pilatus PC-7 Mk II ‘Astra’ in a 5-ship formation aerobatic display.

In most military aerobatic teams today, display flying and ground crew duties are coupled to a full-time posting in a dedicated squadron. The Silver Falcons, however, is a part-time  team. Pilots and ground crew all perform display duties as an over-and-above task to their primary postings. 

Based at Air Force Base Langebaanweg on the South African West Coast, the Silver Falcons are all full-time ab-initio flying instructors at the Central Flying School.

To date, 95 pilots have been selected to fly in 71 different teams for the Silver Falcons.  Each pilot is assigned a unique, sequential number. Whenever one or more team members  change, a new team number is also allocated.

Falcons 1-5 make up the flying members of the team. Falcon 6 is the Ground Liaison and  Safety Officer (GLO) and Falcon 7 is  the Public Realtions Officer (PRO)

The current team, Team 71, flew their first display on 24 March 2011 at the Rapport Mykonos Lagoon Fees in Langebaan. To date the team has performed 24 public displays.