Cape Winelands Airport (formerly Fisantekraal Airfield) is an ex-

South African Air Force "Through hardships to the stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment ...

airfield built circa 1943, and used to operate

Lockheed Ventura The Lockheed Ventura is a twin-engine medium bomber and patrol bomber of World War II. The Ventura first entered combat in Europe as a bomber with the RAF in late 1942. Designated PV-1 by the United States Navy (US Navy), it entered combat in 1 ...

bombers. It is located approximately northeast of

Durbanville Durbanville is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, part of the greater Cape Town metropolitan area. Durbanville is a semi-rural residential suburb on the north-eastern outskirts of the metropolis and is surrounded by farms prod ...

It has been in private ownership since 1993. Cape Winelands Airport serves as a general flying

airfield An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

, and is a favourite for flight training in the

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

area. Most of the fixed wing and helicopter schools, and Air Mercy Services' Pilatus PC-12 from Cape Town International (FACT) an
Morningstar airfield
(Morningstar Flight Academy) also visit Cape Winelands Airport for circuit and emergency training. Private and company aircraft sometimes pick up or drop passengers at Cape Winelands Airport . The largest aircraft to have landed at Cape Winelands Airport was as of 22 August 2017 a

Lockheed C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally design ...

, Call sign 5X-UCF, made several landings. Quite a few advertisements and movies have also been filmed on location at Cape Winelands Airport.

History

Located on a 150 ha site it was built for use by the South African Air Force, circa 1943. Originally, there were four runways. Only two are still in use: RWY23/05 and RWY14/32. The old taxiways and other runways are no longer used, but are still visible from overhead. The airfield was transferred to the local municipality sometime in the 1960s, and it was sold to a private owner in 1993. In 2021, billionaire

Rob Hersov Rob or ROB may refer to: Places * Rob, Velike Lašče, a settlement in Slovenia * Roberts International Airport (IATA code ROB), in Monrovia, Liberia People * Rob (given name), a given name or nickname, e.g., for Robert(o), Robin/Robyn * Rob ...

announced his intention to buy the airport and make it a secondary hub for Cape Town.

Aerodrome and airspace information

Cape Winelands Airport airspace is uncontrolled Class G and has a 5 nm radius with its own radio frequency of 131.1 MHz, callsign Winelands Traffic. Joining

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

is restricted to 2000 ft AMSL by the Cape Town TMA sector A that is above Cape Winelands Airport. There is also the Cape Town CTR that is to the southwest of the field approximately 3.5 nm. Circuits are all flown at 1200 ft AMSL for

fixed wing A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinc ...

and

helicopters A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

, and 900 ft AMSL for

microlights Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...

, and all turns are made to the left. The circuit is restricted to a 2.5 nm radius from the center of the airfield.

Avgas Avgas (aviation gasoline, also known as aviation spirit in the UK) is an aviation fuel used in aircraft with spark-ignited internal combustion engines. ''Avgas'' is distinguished from conventional gasoline (petrol) used in motor vehicles, w ...

100LL fuel and W100 oil is available.

Other information

Magnetic variation Magnetic declination, or magnetic variation, is the angle on the horizontal plane between magnetic north (the direction the north end of a magnetized compass needle points, corresponding to the direction of the Earth's magnetic field lines) and ...

is approx 23° W near Cape Winelands Airport. There are tall mountain ranges to the southeast of the field extending to 6600 ft AMSL. The predominant wind in summer is SE and winter NW. Summer can reach to 40 °C at FAWN giving a density altitude max of about 3200 ft. The general flying areas nearby are the FAD200 to the northwest on 124.4 MHz within 10 minutes flying, and FAD69 to the north on 124.2Mhz within five minutes flying.

Operators

* International Aviation centre South Africa * Cape Town Flight Training Centre provides Private, Night, Instrument and Commercial flight training * Sky Messaging provides banner aerotow services * Working on Fire organisation used to have a summer base at Cape Winelands Airport, but this has recently been closed.

Trivia

* The Lockheed C-130 Hercules, Call sign 5X-UCF, was flown in as part of The Red Sea Diving Resort (2018) movie that was filmed on location.

References

{{authority control Airports in South Africa Transport in Cape Town