Most times, Joe Schuengel is in the first helicopter to lift off. "I diffuse the situation in a pursuit," he said. In his job as a Missouri State Highway Patrol pilot, Schuengel is the eye in the sky for law enforcement authorities. "I tell the officers to terminate because there is no reason to chase them," he said. "Normally the guy slows down. (Patrol cars) will turn off and try to hide. They are not thinking of aircraft in the sky." Schuengel visited St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Elementary School in Dutzow last Thursday. He landed his helicopter in the church parking lot and students braved the chilly conditions to check out his "office." Last week's visit to St. Vincent was arranged by Bob Rothrock. Schuengel's flying exploits include helping locate lost children, people on the run from authorities and drugs such as marijuana. But most of the time his main duty is dealing with traffic enforcement from the sky by communicating with authorities on the ground. Schuengel has been a member of the highway patrol for 15 years, including four in the aircraft division. He said the transition to spending most of his time in the air was easy. "It doesn't matter whatever job you do you are still a trooper first," said Schuengel, who works out of the Troop C headquarters in Weldon Spring. "I still work the road when it's snowing. You just do different jobs in the highway patrol." He usually spends five hours each day in the sky. Before flying to St. Vincent's, Schuengel spent three hours in the morning flying the Highway Patrol's airplane. He mostly covers the metro area, but he does go as far north as the Iowa border and down south to Arkansas. Schuengel said he tries to visit schools when time permits. "I love showing (the helicopter) to the kids and explaining the jobs that I do," he said. "I enjoy it a lot. We let people know we do have aircraft and what we do with it."