N Iowa trooper keeps watch from overhead

MASON CITY, Iowa - Iowa State Patrol Trooper Joe Scott of Garner is keeping North Iowans safer from 4,000 feet in the air.

Scott is a trooper-pilot for the Iowa State Patrol.

Weather permitting, Scott takes to the air each day to help other troopers on the ground catch speeders, search for missing people and assist other agencies including transportation of emergency blood or tissue for transplant.

Scott started as a trooper-pilot in July 2007.

If the weather isn't favorable for flying, Scott patrols in his squad car.

"Every day that the weather permits and I am scheduled to work, I fly," he said.

The Cessna 172 four-seater assigned to Scott is kept in a hangar at the Mason City Municipal Airport.

On this day, he is getting ready to head about seven miles south of Mason City to patrol I-35 for traffic violators.

"We keep speeds down. We can utilize the airplane and a number of ground officers to do the same amount of work or do three times the amount of work that a person might normally be able to do by themselves.

"With the heavier traffic and everything else, it's not always safe to try and turn around and stop a vehicle. That's where the aircraft comes into play," Scott said.

The State Patrol has seven fixed-wing aircraft and eight full-time pilots. One airplane stationed in southwest Iowa is equipped with an infrared thermal imaging system.

Sgt. Ken Paradise, aircraft administrative officer for the Iowa State Patrol, said traffic enforcement is a big part of the air wing's mission but it goes beyond that.

"The aircraft are available to any agency in the state of Iowa any time that needs air support. We fly missions looking for lost children, elderly people who walk away from a nursing home or something along that line. We use the aircraft to help look for drowning victims," Paradise said.

A suicidal woman was located recently in a cornfield in northern Iowa with the help of the aircraft's thermal imaging system.

The State Patrol is the only agency in the state right now that has an air wing.

The city of Cedar Rapids had aircraft but discontinued the program about two years ago, Paradise said.

The state paid for Scott's flight training. Trooper pilots must also complete law enforcement training through the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

"If you have a pilot's license, that's an added benefit to us. We will train them and pay for the private pilot's license," Paradise said.

The pilot must also earn an instrument rating "to fly in the clouds," Paradise said.

The planes are compact.

"These aren't quite like your big planes. You feel every bump and everything," Scott said.

Scott circles an area looking for violations. If he spots something, he alerts a trooper on the ground.

"They're relying 100 percent on what I'm telling them," Scott said.

On this day there are two ground cars.

"He looks like he might be doing close to 80," Scott said of a red vehicle traveling southbound on I-35.

He radios a trooper on the ground.

"I stay with the vehicle until the trooper gets it stopped so there's no mistaking which vehicle it is."

Scott said the trooper on the ground tells the driver that he was clocked traveling over the speed limit by the plane.

"There's no secret to it," Scott said.

"The pilot sees the violation and records it in his notes. The trooper makes the traffic stop. It takes both of them to go to court," Paradise said.

Scott knows the importance of what he does in the air.

"I located a missing child (near Dows). The child and dog were found a distance away from where they were supposed to be," Scott said.

"I located a person that had drowned that was missing. That was sad. It was still good to give closure to the relatives on that one. There's been so many things as far as aviation. Every day is a different adventure I guess," Scott said.

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