'The best job'

~ The air show is just as fun for the performers as it is for the crowds.

Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Cook's job doesn't involve the mundane routine of sitting behind a desk in an air-conditioned office or performing the same task over and over on an assembly line.

No, his job is much better than that.

"It's the best job in the division," the 82nd Airborne paratrooper says just before he climbs up on the observation and command platform placed in the middle of the Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival grounds.

On another day Cook might be one of the four paratroopers climbing into the sky in the C-130 transport plane. But today he's narrating his comrades' slow climb into the air and their quick descent to earth.

A few minutes later his buddies appear out of the plane's tail end -- a few black dots against the blue sky. They fall fast for a few seconds before their chutes open, seemingly stopping them in midflight. For these veterans flying through the air is nothing.

"The only reason you know you're in free fall is the wind in your face," Cook said before he climbed onto the platform.

For the performers at the festival, Friday and today at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, the two-day event is just as fun as it is for the crowds that watch them.

On Friday afternoon, several of them took to the skies to get some practice, show off for the media and get some thrills.

Some years the performers do these practice runs before the festival begins, some years they don't, said airport manager Bruce Loy. Loy said he didn't even know about the sneak-peek performances until late Thursday night.

"Today they all want to play," Loy said.

Trick pilot Skip Stewart definitely loves to play. His flights seem to defy the laws of physics, his modified Pitts biplane flying with its wings just feet from the ground, then gyrating and spinning at higher altitudes.

Stewart got into aerobatic flying in the pursuit of fun. Playing with remote-controlled airplanes as a child inspired him to go after a trick-flying career.

Friday he went skyward to get practice before the show kicked off, and because "it's good to get some vitamin G," referring to the G-forces pilots experience from rapid acceleration.

The afternoon was all fun for Air Force Staff Sgt. Adam Cortes. A member of the ground crew with the A-10 demonstration team, he went up as a passenger in a P-51 Mustang as it flew the Heritage Flight with the A-10 Warthog.

It was his first time in a P-51, an experience he called "indescribable."

"I didn't even know he was there, then I looked out and he was right next to us," Cortes said of his colleague, Maj. Brian Willets, who flew the A-10.

The freefall team, A-10, P-51 and Skip Stewart will be just a few of the performers displaying their aerial skills for the crowds when the show kicks off again today at 3:30 p.m. Today's day show will be followed by another night show at 8:30 p.m. which will feature an after-dark jump by the freefall team.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182

Want to go?

What: Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival

When: Today, 3:30 p.m. (gates open at 11 a.m.)

Where: Cape Girardeau Regional Airport

Info: 334-6230