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Umpires go back to basics for Air Mobility Rodeo 2007

  • Published
  • By Capt. Marnee Losurdo
  • Air Mobility Rodeo 2007 Public
MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  As smoke and the smell of burning rubber drift off the McChord Air Force Base, Wash., runway, two Air Mobility Rodeo 2007 umpires are in search of the "hot spot," the location where the C-130 Hercules first touched down. 

They bring along their high-tech equipment; their left hands. 

Majors Dave Sellars and Jack Rembisz, two of 380 umpires scoring teams competing in Rodeo events July 21-28, kneel and place their hands on the flightline feeling for melted rubber. 

"This is it," said Major Sellars. "We will take the measurement from here."
The method for locating the spot on the runway may seem primitive compared to technology available today. 

"We could use an infrared camera to look for a heat signature, but it's expensive and not really necessary," said Major Rembisz showing the palm of his hand, soiled with black rubber. "This works, and it washes off eventually." 

The majors are scoring teams participating in the assault landing portion of Rodeo. C-130s and C-17 Globemaster IIIs both compete in this category and must land in the center of a 500-foot-long area on the flightline. These aircraft take cargo and military members to the deployment area. They are capable of operating from small, austere airfields and can take off and land in short distances. 

"Those bad guys aren't real good about building 13,000-foot runways for us," said Major Sellars. 

The umpires use a surveyor's wheel to measure from the "hot spot" to the center of the landing zone, which is the target for competing crews. Teams lose points for every foot they land from the target. Some teams have been as close as two feet and others missed the entire designated zone, said Major Sellars. 

The assault landing umpires are not the only ones at Rodeo to use low-tech but effective techniques to assess team performance. On the other side of McChord AFB near the aerial port, Rodeo umpire Chief Master Sgt. Tim Pratt monitors the 10K forklift event. 

A pitcher of water sits on top of a black saw horse, adorned with a horse's head and tail in the spirit of Rodeo. Using a forklift, an Airman from the 721st Air Mobility Operations Group, Ramstein Air Base, Germany, picks up the saw horse and carefully maneuvers around a maze of orange cones. 

The water represents fragile cargo that must be moved carefully and quickly without spilling any water, said Chief Pratt. The 721st AMOG is one of 26 aerial port teams competing in Rodeo. Teams lose points for spilling water, hitting cones and safety infractions. 

After the first team member sets down the saw horse, he hops out of the forklift while another Airman takes over. He moves an empty pallet and drives backwards through the cones to complete the course. 

"We've seen times as fast as 5 minutes, 30 seconds and as slow as 15 minutes," said the chief. 

In today's Air Force of precision munitions and high-tech equipment and programs, it's a simple hand, tape measure, pitcher of water or stopwatch that determines whose the best of the best at Rodeo 2007.