Missouri Wing Squadron Hosts Aviation Students
Recently, Missouri Wing's Gateway Senior Squadron hosted students from the Hancock High Schools Aero 101 class for a tour in aviation at the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, Missouri.
They started with a 30 minute small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) demo by 2d Lt Ben Creen, who talked about and demonstrated how he used the sUAS for the Puerto Rico and Florida hurricane response. The students are already flying the small UAS’s similar to Civil Air Patrol's STEM kits indoors, so had a little familiarity with it.
This was followed by a static display of the squadron's Cessna182 aircraft with the auxiliary power unit connected so they could each sit in the cockpit and see the displays and flight controls.
The group then proceeded to the St. Louis County Aviation department for a tour of the police helicopter operations, and had a surprise tour of two Army Blackhawk helicopters that stopped for fuel while on a cross country to Springfield, Missouri.
The students then had an airport tower tour in groups of four, and then followed that with a pizza lunch provided by squadron commander Lt Col Monteith, while John Tipton, owner of Elite Aviation, talked to them about the process to get a private pilot’s certificate.
The tour concluded with a Wings of Hope tour where Tiffany, their director of public relations, provided an overview of their operations and international connections, as well as their STEM programs.
One of the students said it was the best field trip they’d ever had and the teacher was extremely happy with the day’s events. Kudos Gateway Squadron!