The global hawk is part of NASA GRIP "Genesis and Rapid Intensification Process". Amazing how that information provides no information. ;-) It is a weather monitoring program.

Weird how I could track it last night and this morning, now I cant

Yeah not I can see the whole flight path again. It was going in and out before.

Wish I could post threads, I found an article about a UAV crash down in the Antelope Valley a couple days ago..

I can still see the path. You may want to go to the plane's history and look at older flights. Or try another browser.

Regarding the predator crash, I suppose I should have started a thread on it. General Atomics has three facilities in the Antelope Valley. El Mirage is near the aviation junkyard and close to the dry lake. They filmed the pilgrimage to Area 51 in the movie Independence Day at El Mirage dry lake. The General Atomics (hereafter GA) facility at El Mirage is for the Army variant of the Predator.

The GA facility at Grey Butte is for USAF predators. It is rumored the CIA uses that base as well. It is a bit more remote than El Mirage.

The third GA facility is in Adelanto. There is no airfield there. It is not for training but rather for assembly (I assume).

I have watched training at both facilities. Training consists of flying orbits with a plane in chase. I haven't noticed any photo targets on either field, but they could be learning how to run the sensors at these facilities too.

Here is where things get interesting. The plane that crashed was from Grey Butte, but crashed near El Mirage. I didn't know they flew between facilities. My understanding is for low level flight, the control is from a ground based transmitter. (Long distance flight uses a satellite link). They use ground control to get aroind the satellite lag, which would make landing very difficult.

So there are now a few questions. Was the plane still under control of Grey Butte when it crashed? Or did the facilities try to do a hand off, that is let El Mirage take over the flight. Or did they go to satellite control midway for more realistic training?

UAV flights in the general area are also allowed at KEDW and KVCV. KVCV has a guard wing there. KEDW is for test. Scaled Composites has built at least ine UAV at KMHV, but I don't know if it every flew there.

I've heard they do a lot of UAV testing at China Lake also, but I would assume it's more for testing weapons. I miss living in Ridgecrest, seen and heard a lot of cool stuff.

34°59'0.95"N 117°51'46.50"W

Ah? North, North Edwards airforce base. nice runways ands building. The white jet is VERY cool.