Cape Girardeau Regional Airport Hosts Surprise Arrival

By Leo Cachat

On Saturday January 11, the weather was much improved over what it had been in recent days - clear blue skies and temperatures in the 30's - which by no means is warm but much better than the single digits we experienced throughout much of the week. Seeing this, I decided to take an impromptu ride to visit our friends at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport .

As I was driving down I-55 I noticed an aircraft off to my left that was heading towards the airport but it didn't have the typical civilian aircraft look.  As it passed overhead crossing the interstate to land on Runway 20, I identified the aircraft as a T-6 Texan. Seeing this, I accelerated and made it into the parking lot just as this beautiful aircraft was parking on the ramp. I grabbed my cameras and headed towards the fence to get some photographs where I ran into one of the airport mechanics by the name of Todd. I had met Todd when covering the RCAF Snowbirds arrival to Cape Girardeau for the Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival back in May. Todd allowed me access to the ramp to get these exclusive photos.


T-6 Texan

I briefly spoke to the pilot who was on his way to Bentonville, AR. He had departed Washington D.C. early that morning in what he described as "freezing cold," and exclaimed that the weather in Cape was like a heat wave.  Upon receiving his fuel it was off to Bentonville. 

Cape Air charter

Cessna 421

As I photographed the beautiful T-6 a Cessna 150 pulled in to fuel.  The yellow and blue paint scheme looked sharp in the afternoon sun. The pilot of the 150 also came over to take some photos and we struck up a conversation in which I learned he was ferrying this plane from my old home town of Cleveland, OH down to Texas. He departed Cleveland Hopkins Airport early that morning and said he had one more fuel stop before his destination. He is attending college at Eastern Michigan University, and said this flight was allowing him to get some needed flight hours and  experience. And we of course spoke of what we hope will be a victory by THE Ohio State University Monday night as they take on Oregon in the national title game. After fueling up he too was off and on his way to Texas to complete his flight.  I photographed a couple other aircraft including a Cape Air charter flight departing along with a Cessna 421.


What started out as a day where I just hoped to see something turned out to be a great day full of surprises.  This is another great aspect of aviation - you just never know what you might see until you get out to an airport and look around.  I'd like to extend our thanks to the staff at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport as they ontinue to allow us tremendous access for great stories and to the pilots who allowed me to photograph their airplanes and have another great Aero Experience.