Assault on Chinese forces has started cannot talk about it.

AV-10 is currently undergoing trials in and around Leemoore. According to the pilots who were testing it yesterday it's pretty forgiving when it comes to maneuvering and movement., and pretty stable. Because of the way the engines are rigged up it doesn't need to be drawing a ton of fuel to stay aloft. It hasn't seen combat yet. Right now it's a staring match between the Chinese forces and us right now.

While I was away the Russians apparently destroyed all of the artillery the Chinese had brought in, reports are coming in from the north that it's pretty similar along the rest of the west coast that after the first major engagement it settled into a game of wait and see. Heard nothing from Alaska beyond that the bulk of the Chinese forces landed there and that most of the Russian army is helping out there.

The base commander blew a gasket at us.

Myself and the four others who had built the AV-10, thankfully the captain who'd accompanied us calmed him down and talked him into letting us demonstrate it.

....He wants nine more, depending on how well it does in actual combat.

On route back to Leemoore.

The A-10 monstrosity we've built is still slightly unstable, but it works. The captain was satisfied with the demonstration where our pilot/test guinea pig/volunteer popped up over a ridge strafed a practice target we'd put together out of spare parts, flew in and landed on the trailer. (we spent four hours practicing the landing.)

We've dubbing it the AV-10 Cazador. An apt name for a Vtol tank hunter.

The next one we build might even have engine pods that swivel on two planes of movement rather than just one. we hope the base commander will be pleased as well.

The captain came back earlier than we expected. Nearly thought he was going to blow a gasket when he saw what we were doing.

After chewing us out for a solid ten minutes he ended with how we'd put one of the tiltrotor assemblies on upside down, We pulled the engine and housing off and just had the raw assembly on the side of the craft, and we'd have to reverse the linkage.

Things we have done since monday:

• Welded in more aluminum struts at 45* angles for structural integrity on the wings and  tail
• Smoothed off some of the sharper points.
• Mounted three of the A-10 engines onto the tilt assemblies working on re-doing the upside down assembly.
• Created a control scheme for the tilt assemblies with parts taken from a Sikorsky helicopter.
• Powered up the systems and actually checked to make sure the flight computer worked. Thankfully it did, You'd think we'd have done this first.
• Did a hydraulics test, flaps and everything work within specs (found a manual in another A-10) and the tilt systems work.

The captain suggested we get something to act as a counterweight and weld it to the bottom of the fuselage to keep from having stability issues. Probably is a good idea. 

We also have two more days to get this prototype working otherwise we're going back to Leemoore empty handed. 

And that has been this week.

For those playing at home, the answer is Experimentation.


Anyway we have no idea how well this is going to work, so we've welded in more protection into the "bathtub" on the A-10 we're turning into a monster, and have more padding and restraints in case things get wonky.


So the change's we've made:

• Cut the wingspan down from 57 feet to 35 feet
• pulled the engines off the tail
• figured out how to pull the tiltrotor assembly off the V-22's we're cannibalizing
• Figured out how to do that properly without breaking them and then looked for another V-22.
• spent yesterday figuring out how we can attach the assemblies and retain structural integrity.
• Today we're going to do that.

At this point we figured it might be easier attaching the Gau-8 to the V-22....we'll probably do that once we're done with this project though.

Today's post is brought to you by the letter E, I'll let you try and guess what I mean by that. I'll reveal it next time I post.

Duct Tape, a bunch of engines off some A-10 warthogs, the pivot points off a few V-22's and a bunch of aircraft aluminum and some JB weld for good measure ( as well as rivets and welding) is part of the new "project" since we're out here and have a bunch of welding supplies.

I and a few of the engineers are still out here improving our road in and out, as well as getting bored and imaginative with the spare parts that are available. We're going to try and get out into Edwards or China Lake and check the bunkers there, see if anyone is still around. To be honest, we're not expecting anyone, but if we do find someone they'll be more than happy to see us.

Finally got where we were going. I'd only heard of this place in legends, never thought I'd get to check it out. One of the mojave aircraft boneyards.

Some of it got wrecked at the edges closer to Edwards and China Lake, but since we're only here for components for the hornets it's all good, though it's nice having a stock of planes that can be brought into service easily enough.

Well easy compared to getting anything manufactured right now.

Driving a tractor gives my mind nothing but time to think. Too much time. Haven't seen a bird, animal or insect out here. The reflecting sunlight off glass is annoying too. It's probably a mirage but all this glass seems to go on all the way to the mountains.

I've been running the drag along where the road was, which is working out ok, since I'm clearing out the glass and messed up asphalt then getting to the compacted roadbed below but it's slow going, probably two more days of this and we might see our destination if we're lucky.

Lieutenant liked my idea so much he volunteered me to drive the tractor......

Don't mind, I don't think anyone else here knows how to operate a crawler tractor anyway.

Going to be hiking into the mojave from here on out. The roads in are wasted and the glass shredded the tires on the lead humvee, if it's like this all the way to where we're going we'll have wasted all this fuel for nothing.

I am going to make a suggestion to the lieutenant in charge that we might be able to use a crawler from the shop we raided for goggles before we start hiking in. If we sent it first and pulled a drag behind it, we'd have a good enough road cleared.

Found a "glass" rattlesnake. My best guess is that when the bombs hit the blast compacted sand into the body of the snake, and then the heat from it melted the glass around it before incinerating the flesh leaving it hollow inside.  At least, that's my best guess. I have no idea if that's what happened. for all I know it could have been aliens that made it.

Spent the morning chipping it out of the surrounding melted dirt and sand then wrapped it up. Going to take it home and see about getting it to my mom.


Did I mention it's cold out here? The water cans we had froze up into a slush last night and it's barely above freezing right now. It's also windy.

Currently in what was the mojave. Drove to the nearest farming town to get sets of welding goggles and drove back because everything's kinda glass and reflecting light everywhere. There were none left between myself and the rest of the unit I'm accompanying.

Not much more beyond that.

That and the radiation levels are higher here, though not deadly unless I run around naked or something silly like that. I'd probably die of dehydration first, and not interested in testing it anyway.