Sky high service

SPOKANE — In their efforts to come home victorious from a biennial air rodeo, several military teams are using Moses Lake for practice.

The Fairchild rodeo team is conducting four days of training with the McChord Air Force Base Rodeo teams at Grant County International Airport.

Training began Monday, with media invited on a Fairchild training mission departing from and landing at the Moses Lake site Tuesday. The training event included training to configure the KC-135 for aeromedical evacuation and a flight to refuel a McChord C-17 Globemaster III.

Eighteen airmen from Fairchild are competing in the 2007 Air Mobility Command Rodeo, theld July 21 through July 28 at McChord Air Force Base outside of Tacoma. International competitors and 45 U.S. teams are participating in the event.

Fairchild's competitors consist of three teams — maintenance, operations and security forces. Each compete in challenges specific to their jobs in the Air Force.

Maj. Greg Hankins is team chief, overseeing the team.

The maintenance team is practicing pre-flight, post-fight, refueling and servicing inspections and general recovering and launching of the airplane.

"They're graded every day of the competition, they don't really get a break," Hankins said. "They're under the gun, as far as being observed the whole week we're in competition."

For the operations side, the team is practicing two flights, one during the day and at night.

The majority of practice being done at the airport is air refueling and a controlled timing exercise, Hankins said.

"We have to fly over an exact point, measured in feet, one time, and again a second determined time after we cross it the first time," he said. "It's really precision flying, is what we measure for."

Air refueling is done precisely as well, without the use of automation or auto pilot.

Using the Moses Lake-based airport gets the team away from its home station and focused upon training for a solid week, Hankins said.

"It's a place which has been supportive to us day in and day out," he added. "We use this as off-base training to come over here and practice instrument approaches during our normal training. And good ground support here, and a secure airport."

The airport's central location allows both Fairchild and McChord to utilize its facilities. Hankins said McChord invited Fairchild's team to train alongside them this year.

The Moses Lake community has shown support for the team, Hankins added.

"Everywhere we've gone has been just fanatical," he said. "People come up to you, say, 'Thanks for your service, how you guys doing today?' Folks are offering to get us sponsored at the country club, so outstanding support. It's really a great community here."

"Actually, we're kind of unique because none of us have been in prior rodeos," maintenance team chief Capt. William Hargrove said. "So this will be the first time for each one of us. We don't know what to expect yet, but it's going to be interesting for all of us."

Moses Lake-based Air America is offering support to the team for the four-day training.

"McChord Air Force Base already operates here on the 9/27 runway, so they're familiar with the facilities," Air America owner Larry Godden said.

Air America also has a defense fuels contract, he noted.

"And of course, we provide the best service in the world," Godden added with a chuckle.