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A couple of months back I was going on a road trip through California and stopped by a dry lake called El Mirage Lake. It's a very tacky area requiring a permit to enter.

My friend and I showed up near midnight and could hear a VERY low-flying aircraft. I happened to have a flashlight with a 800 m beam distance and using it we could clearly see a Predator drone less than 500 feet over the ground.

The drone was flying an autonomous rectangular course over the lake all night, but the next morning it had changed altitude and was flying a few thousand feet over the lake - high enough that it just looked like a normal airplane.

For 30 minutes or so there was a Cessna following behind it which was very strange... Would it be a human monitoring the drone for some reason?

Anyway, as a current civilian I feel like there's something wrong with military aircraft being used as surveillance over public area, not to mention it seems a little pointless. Why is the government (or at least state of California) using equipment like this for useless reasons?

I have a pretty bad photo of it using a telephoto lens that I can post later as proof that is was actually a Predator drone.

DeltaLima
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Keegan
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    Just out of curiosity, I'd really like to see the photo. I don't doubt you, of course, but I'm interested. –  Jun 22 '14 at 00:35
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    Similar incident: http://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/7426/what-is-this-object-that-followed-me-up-the-street – Farhan Jun 22 '14 at 02:15
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    You're making a huge leap from "I saw a Predator flying" to "The Predator was on a surveillance mission against the American people." – David Richerby Jun 22 '14 at 13:56
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    And worse, assuming that such surveillance would be useless. I can see definite benefits of using UAVs with IR scanners for detecting things like marihuana groweries (right now manned helicopters are used for that, UAVs would have more endurance, lower cost, and be less noisy). – jwenting Jun 23 '14 at 07:11
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    @jwenting Well, currently medical marijuana is legal (so it can be grown legally) in 20 states, incl. the OP's) and it is legal for recreational use in 2. Of course that would not stop the Federal government from performing those type of flights. (and yes, I understand that medical m. use would not need a field or fields worth of pot. :) ) – CGCampbell Jun 25 '14 at 12:50
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    @CGCampbell it's legal here to have up to 5 plants, police do the flights regularly because many people end up turning their attics into professional greenhouses, complete with high power lights, dripfeeding water systems, and CO2 injection, all without proper electrical wiring and often with stolen electricity (and growing dozens of plants that way). Just in the last few months they rolled up at least 2 operations within about a quarter mile of where I live that way. – jwenting Jun 25 '14 at 18:49
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    Ahh, I don't know much about the whole lifestyle, my job would not let me ever indulge, even if it were Federally legal. – CGCampbell Jun 26 '14 at 00:27
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    @DavidRicherby While in this case it appears to be test flights, IIRC, (unarmed) Predators are actually used domestically from time to time by law enforcement, border security, and other such situations (including forest fire monitoring) where their ability to loiter on target for a long time to surveil an area is useful. My favorite article on this topic was when Arizona had requested more of them to patrol the border... the article was named Aliens vs. Predators. :) – reirab Dec 14 '15 at 20:09
  • Once I was near a supposedly civilian airport and in amongst the Airbuses, I saw a parade of C-40s, C-32s and KC-767s flying in, even a C-33, which you can't mistake for anything else! Worse it appeared some had been faked up with civilian markings. The government is up to something. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Oct 19 '17 at 19:11
  • @Keegan --" It's a very tacky area " (1 : not having or exhibiting good taste: such as. a : marked by cheap showiness : gaudy a tacky publicity stunt a tacky outfit. b : marked by lack of style : dowdy.) "requiring a permit to enter" -- huh? There seems to be a disconnect here. – quiet flyer Apr 21 '22 at 18:21

2 Answers2

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An article from 2001, TESTING SPY PLANES GRAY BUTTE AIRFIELD TO BE REOPENED says,

General Atomics, which makes the Predator in San Diego, has been conducting final production tests and checkout flights at El Mirage, three miles inside the San Bernardino County line.

See also EL MIRAGE FLIGHT TEST FACILITY

ChrisW
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  • But this is 13 years later... How does this answer the question? – Peter Mortensen Jun 22 '14 at 09:30
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    13 years later, they're still manufacturing them and still test-flying them? – ChrisW Jun 22 '14 at 09:54
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    Because they still need to test the planes built to the old design as they come off the production line, they still need to test any changes to the design and (though it sounds like this isn't relevant to the situation you describe) they still need to train new pilots. – David Richerby Jun 22 '14 at 14:59
  • They might also test-fly every drone (or every 10th, or one in every batch) for quality control purposes – Hobbamok Feb 11 '22 at 13:23
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ChrisW's answer covers "why the Predator?" (El Mirage Field is used by General Atomics for test-flying their drones), which makes "Why the Cessna?" easy to answer: if General Atomics is test-flying a Predator drone or variant, the Cessna is probably there as a chase plane to monitor the test.

Mark
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    In fact, a quick search turned up multiple images of Cessna's used by GA as chase planes. – MSalters Jun 22 '14 at 22:36
  • I'm pretty sure (can't find proof) that any UAV operating in US domestic airspace must be accompanied by a manned aircraft. – egid Jun 23 '14 at 01:49
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    @egid I seriously doubt that. Maybe if it didn't have a civilian rated transponder and was not operating under military rules. But the USAF has been operating unmanned aircraft without chase planes for decades (often as target drones). – jwenting Jun 23 '14 at 07:09