New Spirit of St. Louis makes pit stop in Cape Girardeau

The New Spirit of St. Louis sits outside a hangar near the Elite Avionics’ offices Monday, July 15.

Nathan Gladden ~ ngladden@semissourian.com

The New Spirit of St. Louis landed earlier this month in Cape Girardeau to receive avionics upgrades from Elite Avionics near Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

The New Spirit of St. Louis, or Lancair Columbia 300, was flown across the Atlantic on May 2, 2002, by Charles Lindbergh’s grandson Erik Lindbergh on the 75th anniversary of his grandfather’s historic trans-Atlantic flight.

According to the AeroCareers website, after 14 years of the aircraft sitting in a hangar, it found its new owner with AeroCareers to promote aerospace education. Nick Turk, the not-for-profit organization’s COO, said he’s honored to take part in the Lindbergh family tradition by being able to sit in the seat of the airplane.

“We do two things with the aircraft. We give rides in the aircraft overall. What we do is we promote aviation and we promote aerospace with that aircraft,” Turk said. “I share with those people a connection to the history of the Lindberghs and the history of aviation.”

He said they took the plane to be worked on in Cape Girardeau because some larger airports aren’t always as friendly or receptive to what the aircraft would need.

“Cape Girardeau, it’s a very receptive and friendly environment. And I’m getting to know your community through Justin Albright, the owner of Elite Avionic Services,” Turk said.

Albright said he flew the airplane with them in St. Louis and it’s a “neat airplane.” He said with the type of airplane it is, it’s a fast and fun airplane to fly.

Albright said when it made its flight years ago, it had “cutting edge” technology but has aged since.

“It had some things that just weren’t working properly anymore that needed to be addressed. And so we took that opportunity to upgrade a few things,” Albright said.

He said they were able to upgrade the GPS and are looking to do more work “probably” next year.

Albright said it was a compliment to be referred by AeroCareers to work on the aircraft. He said there aren’t many avionics shops citing it as a “specialty.” Albright said it was an honor that AeroCareers thought highly of them to work on it.

“It’s a good organization. It’s a really neat airplane with a really cool history and we’re just happy to be a part of it,” he said.

The New Spirit of St. Louis left Cape Girardeau Regional Airport on July 15.