How the Missouri State Highway Patrol uses planes to stop speeders — and more

Two motorcycles were speeding down U.S. 60 when a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper came up behind them with lights flashing.

One of the motorcycles pulled over, court documents say, but the other motorcyclist hit the gas.

The trooper pursued the motorcycle. At one point, it was clocked at132 mph — more than twice the speed limit — during the chase, court documents say.

The red motorcycle allegedly sped up even more, whizzing past cars as it traveled on the center line.

The trooper quit pursuing the motorcycle, and the chase appeared to be over.

The motorcyclist headed back to his home in Ozark, apparently unaware that his every move was being watched.

He might have looked like a speck in the sky, but Sgt. Dan Wohnoutka followed the red motorcycle from 2,000 feet above in a highway patrol airplane.

Documents say it was Wohnoutka who first clocked the two motorcyclists going 76 mph and radioed that information to troopers down below.

When road officers stopped their pursuit of the speeding motorcycle, documents say Wohnoutka followed and never lost sight until the motorcyclist parked in his driveway.

Every day, Missouri motorists slow down when they see a trooper parked on the side of a highway, but it might be the trooper in the sky who's catching them speeding.

Wohnoutka is one of nine pilots in the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Aircraft Division.

The patrol's aircraft division was a part of 12,951 total enforcement contacts in 2017, most of which were traffic stops, according to a patrol spokesman. They also assisted in 26 pursuits — 23 of which resulted in the driver's arrest.

Wohnoutka started off as a road officer and became a full-time pilot for the patrol in 2011.

Five days a week, Wohnoutka is in the sky, mostly looking for traffic violations.

Here's how Wohnoutka said it works:

The highway patrol identifies roadways with a high volume of traffic violations.

They set up "blocks" — reflective mats that can be seen from the sky — on those roads, 660 feet apart. That's an eighth of a mile.

Wohnoutka flies a single-engine Cessna in the sky above the blocks and circles the area between 1,800 and 2,000 feet up in the air.

From the airplane, Wohnoutka can spot cars that appear to be following other cars too closely or speeding.

When a speeding car crosses a block, Wohnoutka clicks a stopwatch and clicks it again when the car crosses the next block to determine its speed. Wohnoutka contacts troopers below to tell them if they've got a speeder.

Wohnoutka said he enjoys what he does, though even flying a plane can become less fun when it's a full-time job. Especially on summer days, Wohnoutka said, when there's no air conditioning in the plane and temperatures can reach up to 105 degrees.

Wohnoutka and other troopers also fly helicopters for the highway patrol, he said, though he primarily flies a plane, which is much cheaper to operate.

It costs about $75 to $80 an hour to fly a Cessna single-engine plane, Wohnoutka said, versus $485 an hour for a helicopter.

Those figures include fuel, maintenance and the pilot's salary, Wohnoutka said.

Planes are good for identifying traffic violations, Wohnoutka said, though helicopters can be useful in surveying flood damage, search and rescue missions, and suspect apprehension operations.

For years, the highway patrol utilized a program funded completely by the Drug Enforcement Administration to catch large-scale marijuana farms, Wohnoutka said.

In the summer months, Wohnoutka said, pilots would fly helicopters — "low and slow" — following up on tips or just looking for marijuana farms.

"The majority of days you found something growing somewhere," he said.

Despite the success, Wohnoutka said, those type of operations pretty much ended in 2011 because of a technicality with state and federal funding requirements.

As for the speeding motorcyclist, court documents say he's been charged with five misdemeanors in the March 26 incident.

According to court records, Ethan Paul Davis, 25, is charged with two counts of speeding, failing to yield to an emergency vehicle, careless and imprudent driving and resisting arrest.

When asked why he sped off rather than stop, Davis allegedly told the trooper he knew it was stupid to flee.