Fisantekraal Airfield

Cape Winelands Airport (formerly Fisantekraal Airfield) is an ex-South African Air Force airfield built circa 1943, and used to operate Lockheed Ventura bombers. It is located approximately northeast of Durbanville. It has been in private ownership since 1993.

Cape Winelands Airport serves as a general flying airfield, and is a favourite for flight training in the Cape Town area. Most of the aeroplane 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.

As of August 2017, the largest aircraft to have landed at Cape Winelands Airport was a Lockheed C-130 Hercules 5X-UCF, making several landings. Advertisements and movies have also been filmed on location at Cape Winelands Airport.

History

It was built ca. 1943 on a 150 ha site for use by the South African Air Force. Originally, there were four runways. Only two are still in use: 05/23 and 14/32. The old taxiways and other runways are no longer used, but are still visible from overhead. The airfield was transferred to the local municipality in the 1960s, and it was sold to a private owner in 1993.
In 2021, billionaire Rob Hersov 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 its own radio frequency of 131.1 MHz. Broadcasts are addressed to Winelands Traffic. Joining altitude is restricted to 2000 ft AMSL by the Cape Town TMA sector A overhead. The Cape Town CTR is approximately 3.5 NM southwest of the field.

Circuits are all flown at 1200 ft AMSL for aeroplanes and helicopters, and 900 ft AMSL for microlights. All turns are made to the left. The circuit is restricted to a 2.5 nm radius from the centre of the airfield.

Avgas 100LL fuel and W100 oil are available.

Other information

Magnetic variation 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 prevailing wind is southeasterly in summer and northwesterly in winter. Summer temperatures can reach 40 °C, resulting in a maximum density altitude of about 3200 ft. The general flying areas nearby are FAD200 about 10 minutes to the northwest on 124.4 MHz, and FAD69 about five minutes to the north on 124.2 MHz.

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.

Planned developments

There are plans to convert the Cape Winelands Airport into an international airport, which will make it the second international airport in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The airport improvement program is planned to be done in an 18 to 24 month period, starting within the last few months of 2025, with the commissioning planned for early 2028. With an investment of R7.7 billion, plans include the completion of a runway, the setting up of a warehousing facility and the building of a passenger terminal that can accommodate 5.2 million passengers yearly.

References

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Airports in South Africa
Transport in Cape Town