SAN ANGELO, Texas — If you've looked up to the skies over San Angelo lately, you've probably seen quite a few planes flying in formation regularly, headed to San Angelo Regional Airport at Mathis Field.
No, it's not an invasion - it's our 'neighbors to the north' and it's not the first time they've been here - in fact, the Royal Canadian Air Force was here on a scouting mission in October 2023. And they liked it, so they returned this month.
"We have had a contingent here from the Royal Canadian Air Force since the beginning of February and in that time, they have done…I can’t tell you the number of total missions, but there are eight planes behind me along with a total of 90 crew, which includes our ground crew...working very, very well with our Mathis Field and San Angelo Regional Airport folks," Jeremy Bartz, vice president of Destination Marketing Organization for the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce, said Friday.
A pilot training squadron from Saskatchewan with pilots working to earn a certification toward formation flying in Canadian T-156 aircraft arrived this month and Bartz says they've acclimated to West Texas well.
"They’ve spent a lot of time in our hotels, local restaurants, they say the hospitality here is bar none, the best they’ve ever seen," he said. "Our cultures mix very well together, in fact, we’ve even named them 'our neighbors to the north'."
"They say that Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, is essentially the Texas of Canada, and that when you look at it on a map, we’re essentially just due south of them. So, we mix very well together, our cultures are the same. Of course right now, they can’t fly up in Saskatchewan, because it’s minus 50 degrees, but we’ve had great weather here for them in the month of February."
This won't be the final flight to Texas for the pilots in training. They'll return to the Concho Valley in November and Bartz said the Chamber looks forward to it being a long-term relationship with the RCAF. There's even talk about a group from San Angelo heading north of the border to pay a visit.
"We’ve even talked about the possibility of us coming up to Moose Jaw to see them," Bartz said. "From a Chamber of Commerce standpoint, actually going up and visiting their hometown as well, or take a contingent from San Angelo to go up and see them and see their operation there…..we’d have to do that in the summer, obviously. It’s a little cold up there for those of us from the southern hemisphere, so we’ll wait until the summertime and we’ll run up there."