Itâs not every day that elementary school students get a personalized guided tour of the cockpit of a jet fighter or get to peer inside the engine compartment of a helicopter, but thatâs what happened Nov. 18 when two test pilots from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS) paid a virtual visit to Ms. Kylie Lowmanâs first grade class at Park Hall Elementary School, just south of NAS Patuxent River.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a live tour on base was not possible, so USNTPS commanding officer Lt. Col. Rory Feely and fixed-wing instructor Lt. Cmdr. Scott Elwell used Park Hall Elementaryâs online virtual classroom system to provide video tours of their âridesâ â a UH-60L Black Hawk for Feely, and an F/A-18F Super Hornet for Elwell â and to answer their questions about what itâs like to be a test pilot.