85 Combat Flying School SAAF

85 Combat Flying School is a unit of the South African Air Force. It is currently a jet flight-training and combat operations school. The school also has a wartime reserve role, although it has publicly been stated that the school will not be used operationally unless a very urgent need arises.

  • Motto: Detrimento Sumus (Destruction is our Business)
  • First formed: 1 August 1972 (at AFB Pietersburg)
  • Historic aircraft flown: Mirage IIIEZ/DZ/D2Z, Canadair Sabre Mk.6, Atlas Impala Mk.I/II.
  • Current aircraft flown: BAE Hawk Mk.120
  • Current base: AFB Makhado, Louis Trichardt

The School was recently relocated to AFB Makhado from AFB Hoedspruit into a new purpose built facility with state-of-the-art computer-aided flight training instruments. The school shares this facility with the SAAF Gripen community.

During October 2007 there were several pilots that went solo on the Hawk Mk.120.

The squadron also participated in the annual SANDF force preparation exercises and fired live cannon rounds and dropped live bombs. They also had a successful weapons deployment exercise to AFB Bloemspruit in 2007.

South African Air Force
Active Squadrons
  • 2
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 19
  • 21
  • 22
  • 28
  • 35
  • 41
  • 44
  • 60
Training and Development Units
  • 68 Air School
  • 80 Air Navigation School
  • 85 Combat Flying School
  • 87 Helicopter Flying School
  • Central Flying School
  • Test Flight and Development Centre
  • South African Air Force College
  • SAAF Museum Historic Flight
Territorial Reserve Squadrons
  • 101
  • 102
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 110
  • 111
Disbanded Squadrons
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 14
  • 18
  • 20
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 40
  • 42
  • 43
  • 50
  • 103
  • 109
  • 112
  • 114
  • 120
  • 86 Multi-Engine Flying School
  • 88 Maritime Training School
  • 89 Combat Flying School
WW2 Wings of the SAAF
  • 2
  • 3
  • 5
  • 7
Bases
  • AFB Bloemspruit
  • AFB Durban
  • AFB Hoedspruit
  • AFB Langebaanweg
  • AFB Makhado
  • AFB Overberg
  • AFB Swartkop
  • AFB Waterkloof
  • AFB Ysterplaat
  • AFS Port Elizabeth
Related
  • History of the South African Air Force
  • South African Air Force Museum
  • South African Air Force Memorial
  • Military history of South Africa
  • List of current and historical SAAF aircraft
  • List of obsolete weapon systems of the South African Air Force
  • SAAF squadron identification codes
  • Official Website: www.af.mil.za
  • Unofficial Website: www.saairforce.co.za

Famous quotes containing the words combat, flying and/or school:

    “If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections.... Males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.”
    —Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)

    “We saw by the flitting clouds, by the first russet tinge on the hills, by the rushing river, the cottages on shore, and the shore itself, so coolly fresh and shining with dew, and later in the day, by the hue of the grape-vine, the goldfinch on the willow, the flickers flying in flocks, and when we passed near enough to the shore, as we fancied, by the faces of men, that the fall had commenced.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “A sure proportion of rogue and dunce finds its way into every school and requires a cruel share of time, and the gentle teacher, who wished to be a Providence to youth, is grown a martinet, sore with suspicions; knows as much vice as the judge of a police court, and his love of learning is lost in the routine of grammars and books of elements.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)