Andrew wrote:

Just a guess, but if a plane is in monitoring mode, I think it would be
doing orbits outside the "arena", much like the AWACS does. It seems
more orderly.

I could see a ground controller having trouble with a UAV over the
typical loop a plane does when being tested. The terrain is pretty
rugged out there. But a UAV could be programmed for really tight boring
loops while killing time between tests.

The more I think about it, I think UAV control from the CV22 is
unlikely. I've seen diagrams of the predator ground control stations. I
think it would be a tight squeeze to put one in the CV22. [I ordered a
crash report of a predator, and the ground control documents were in
the report. The detail was so good that I self censored myself, i.e.
none of the info is on my website.]

 As always, very sensible remarks. But that CV22 is there for a reason and I
doubt it's just to rack up flight time for the co-pilot(HHOK). Perhaps it's not
there to help but to "hinder".

What is the weak link in a UAV ? Perhaps air-ground control link. There
may be jamming issues or even tests of crew-concentration, who knows?
I'm thinking (vaguely) back to the wire-controlled anti-tank rockets in the
'72 Arab-Isreali War - Didn't the counter measures involve shooting the
hell out of the presumed launch-point  so as to make them lose control?
(again, vague, maybe way off-topic). but a B-2 *is* a stealthy thing to send
into a test-area when thay could just have a F-15 do it much cheaper if
all you wanted was to "pretend-drop" some munitions on the test crew.
Anyway,... I just find it darn intriguing that's all.

Andrew

>From all appearances, it sure looked like a joy ride. ;-) That is the
thing about the TTR. It can be a "regular" plane with some funny pod,
avionics, engine, etc. These guys aren't stupid, so they probably do
tests there that they know can't be deduced easily by observation.