ON TOP OF THEIR GAME PRACTICE KEEPS FLIGHT CREWS IN SHAPE.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - On a warm, late summer afternoon, two Edwards Air Force Base flight crews prepared for their missions.

Unlike the high-profile missions featuring the F-22 - the nation's newest fighter jet - these missions will feature decidedly unglamorous jets: the KC-135 tanker, ``the flying Texaco station in the sky,'' and the T-38, the Air Force's 40-year-old supersonic trainer.

At the base's Test Operations building, Flight Safety Office pilots Maj. Bill Koukourikos and Maj. Greg Krochta, a former Test Pilot School instructor, go through their briefing for the T-38 flight.

It begins with a review of the mission data card, which includes the flight objectives and names and identification numbers of crew and aircraft.

``We call it a dance card,'' Koukourikos said. ``Where guys get into trouble is when they try to do things that aren't on the card.''

Throughout the preflight briefing, safety parameters are noted - a 1,000-foot floor for a simulated bombing run, an 8,000-foot floor for simulated air-to-air combat, and an overall maximum altitude of 18,000 feet, a limit mandated because a passenger riding in one of the aircraft hasn't had a medical clearance to go above that altitude.

One of the mission's tasks will be a simulated space shuttle approach from 18,000 feet. Lacking an engine for landings, space shuttles are essentially big fast gliders as they land.

``This is to show how test pilots have to manage energy as a glider for shuttle landings,'' Krochta said.

The plan calls for the T-38 piloted by Krochta to be the ``shuttle'' while the other T-38 simulates a safety chase aircraft.

During the descent, Krochta will aim the nose of the aircraft at a black marking he calls the ``doghouse'' just off the base's main runway. The T-38 will be flying with its nose pointed downward at a 25 degree to 30 degree angle.

At 3,400 feet, the T-38 will raise its nose up, bleed off some speed and touch down.

While the T-38 mission is gearing up, a KC-135 crew is finishing up its preflight checks prior to going up to support a pair of F-22 flight test missions.

``It's a really busy time with the F-22,'' said Senior Master Sgt. Mike Kibler, a tanker refueling boom operator who rode as a passenger on the flight. ``The F-22 runs the world right now.''

Typically there are two tanker crews on temporary duty assignments at Edwards during any given week. On this day, the F-22 missions will be serviced by a crew from Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.

On this mission, the crew is flying a KC-135 tanker built in 1962. While the tanker is older than the Robins crew flying it, it is fresh off a major modification to replace many of its old gauges and dials with multifunction glass cockpit displays, the installation of a global positioning satellite system, and radar improvements.

For about three and half hours, the KC-135 will fly a racetrack loop pattern over the desert and mountains between Edwards and Lake Isabella, flying around and around while fighter jets pull up periodically to top off their fuel tanks.

The track is one of four that the tankers operating out of Edwards typically fly.

The others run east of Edwards out to Barstow; over a test range at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada; and over the Pacific Ocean roughly between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.

The refuelings all take place at an altitude of 21,000 feet and at a speed of 305 knots, or roughly 350 mph. One by one the aircraft needing fuel gingerly position themselves behind the tanker and the operator in the KC-135 extends the refueling boom using a joy stick to make the connection.

``The guys at Edwards refuel so much they are pretty good at it,'' Kibler said. ``In the real world it's more challenging for the boom operator. We only refuel during the day. In the real world you have to deal with weather, night flying, the bad guys.''

Kibler's unit, the 370th Flight Test Squadron, is a reserve unit activated about a year ago as part of an Air Force effort to free up active-duty personnel for other tasks. The unit contains a mix of full-time military and part-time personnel.

The unit is in a bit of flux as Edwards' Air Force Flight Test Center is reorganizing its mission support aircraft under the umbrella of the Test Operations unit.

``The idea is for the graduates from the Test Pilot School to go into test ops and then transfer into the test squadrons,'' Kibler said.

On the return to Edwards, the KC-135 crew makes its own simulated shuttle landing, flying a steep descent onto the main runway, passing over the ``doghouse'' shuttle marking. By the time the KC-135 returns, the T-38s have already returned and their pilots have gone home.

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Photo:

(color) An Edwards Air Force Base F-15 eases up to a KC-135 tanker to refuel, part of a training mission over Southern California that keep pilots and crews in shape.

Jim Skeen/Daily News