Edwards AFB News

TPS Class 05B to graduate Saturday

  • Published
  • By Della Perry
  • U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School will have more than 2,600 alumni, as Class 05B graduates 22 of it's finest, Saturday.

Eleven pilots, 9 engineers and two navigators from the U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps, as well as students from Italy and Japan are added to its roll.

As varied as the students themselves are their feelings about TPS.

"As a Marine aviator, experiencing the Air Force flight methods and procedures, as well as the Air Force way of life, has been rewarding both professionally and personally," said Marine Maj. Robert Fails, TPS Class 05B class leader. "The officers of 05B are a top-notch group that the Air Force is lucky to have not only in the flight test community, but the service in general."

The students have completed one of the most challenging and demanding courses in the world, said Col. Andre Gerner, TPS commandant. "I'm very proud of each and every one of them."

Each student has completed over 520 hours of academics and approximately 120 hours of in-flight training. Each student also put in about six hours per day of instructor contact time, not including time spent in academic and flight preparation.

"It was a great experience," said Capt. Jason Eckberg, TPS student. "I especially enjoyed the opportunity to fly more airplanes than I ever thought I would get a chance to."

Part of the academic portion of the student's year at TPS is a final exercise where the students demonstrate learning from across the curriculum as they execute real-world test management projects.

The projects for Class 05B were:

"HAVE BAT"
This test management project investigated the theory of boundary avoidance tracking. Boundary avoidance tracking occurs when a pilot is performing a tracking task, such as maintaining formation position, with boundaries imposed on the performance of the task. The theory is that when the pilot approaches a boundary, the tracking task will be abandoned until the boundaries are successfully avoided; in other words, the pilot begins tracking the boundaries instead of the original tracking task.

If the boundaries are sufficiently stringent, then a pilot-induced oscillation can result from repetitive boundary avoidance tracking events.

The "HAVE BAT" project attempted to quantify the correlation of specific aircraft handling qualities with the parameters that define boundary avoidance tracking.

Two T-38 aircraft were flown in formation at various flight conditions and configurations to vary aircraft handling qualities. Visual boundaries were applied to multiple tracking tasks to measure boundary avoidance tracking and this was then correlated with the different aircraft handling qualities. The goal was to determine if aircraft handling qualities affected the parameters that defined boundary avoidance tracking. Team members included Maj. Brian Abell, Maj. Scott Heritsch, Capt. Kyle Kolsti, Capt. Brandon Miller and Capt. Randy Warren.

"HAVE JIVE"
The purpose of the "HAVE JIVE" Test Management Project was to evaluate an Air Force Research Lab developed Voice Recognition System for possible use on the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

The VRS system was ground and flight tested on the NF-16D Variable Stability In-Flight Simulator Test Aircraft. The collected data was provided to AFRL and the JSF program office. The overall test objective was to determine which factors affected VRS performance. The specific factors of interest evaluated included various load factors, accented versus native U.S. speakers, and native U.S. female versus male speakers. In order to accomplish this objective the TMP team included both foreign students, one of the two female students and three American male students. The participation of the foreign students was key to the "HAVE JIVE" TMP, since the VRS system will potentially be used by foreign countries as part of the JSF program. Team members included Japan Air Self Defence Force Maj. Toshio Ikeya, Capt. Gregg Beeber, Capt. Michele Bruemmer, Capt. Jacob Jackson, Capt. Miles Middleton and Italian Air Force Lt. Crescenzo Esposito.

"SENIOR ShWOOPIN"
Traditional sailplane flight involves the use of static soaring techniques like thermalling or ridge lift. These techniques involve increasing the sailplane's energy state through the use of vertically moving air. Dynamic soaring is radically different from static soaring in that it involves extracting energy from strictly horizontal wind shears. Dynamic soaring has been used by sea birds to travel 1,000's of kilometers over the ocean and by radio controlled glider enthusiasts to achieve sustained airspeeds of more than 160 knots. "SENIOR ShWOOPIN" is a joint project between the Air Force and NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. It is the world's first attempt to quantify the energy state benefit and utility of dynamic soaring with respect to full-sized sailplanes.

Dynamic soaring could provide sailplane pilots and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with additional options for enhancing aircraft endurance and range performance using naturally existing atmospheric conditions. The test aircraft was a LET L-23 Super Blanik sailplane equipped with advanced electronic cockpit displays and special instrumentation designed to track wind shears and aircraft energy states. Flights were accomplished at low altitude and high speeds over the northern portions of Rogers Dry Lake adjacent to North Base. Team members included Major Fails, Capt. Solomon Baase, Captain Eckberg, Capt. Randel Gordon, Capt. Charles Ryan and Capt. Chris Smith.

"HAVE HALO"
A test team from TPS performed flight tests to quantify the range and bandwidth capability of an 802.11b Wireless Fidelity datalink established between a C-12C and a ground station. The test team also evaluated the utility of receiving imagery and streaming live video transmitted across the datalink. This test focused on straight and level unaccelerated flight, and banked turns at 20 and 30 degrees. The test program was a risk-reduction for follow-on testing using high-performance fighter aircraft. Team members included Maj. George Schwartz, Maj. Chris Spinelli, Capt. Michael Dooley, Capt. Laura Durham and Capt. Troy Welker.