chuck; I along with about 98% of the other people got your humor, but sadly it's that 2% we really have to worry about. after i chuckled at your post, the picture of a ten year old boy walking out the door with his plane in one hand and his dads shotgun in the other popped in my head, kind of scary

Now you've done it! You mentioned the word sh_tg_n again. You'll most likely get deleted!

Your assessment is right on. Thanks for understanding. It's tough, sometimes.

No problem here, either, Chuck.

CGr.

To just add a comment, I have often joined buzzards in a thermal while flying full sized sailplanes and have never noticed any concern on their part. And yes, they are great thermal locators! I can tell you that you will never outclimb them! And if you're flying and begin a circle, the buzzards will join you thinking that you have a thermal! I did this once in a powered sailplane and when the buzzards joined me but couldn't climb, they gave me the worst look I've ever received from another aviator! But I can also say that that thermaling with a wild bird is one of my most fond memories and it's amazing how they you can watch them feel the air with their feathers as they thermal.

Good luck guys and enjoy!

Few months back had a Hawk got curiously close to my Raptor, more than likely he was defending his teritory. I dropped my helo to the deck and flew my helo on the other side of the field.

Steve

[8D]

To clarify, the deleted post did mention weaponry as a solution, and I knew it was a joke. It's just that some people don't have a sense of humor and I'd hate to see the hobby blemished by something so trivial.

same thing happen to me about 25 years ago. was up flying my cub and there were 2 red tail hawks also flying above my 80 ac. farm.
so I had the great idea to fly up to them. I chop the throttle and floated around them for about 5 min. the engine died and as I floated down one of the hawks atack my plane and road it to the ground. the hawk flew back up to the other hawk and my plane never flew again. my wife name the hawk the red baron. all I can say is curse you red baron. true story

red tail hawks are VERY aggresssive, I do mowing at work using a large AG tractor pulling a 15ft mowing deck, one of the places I mow is along the river, which is where our field is, anyway the hawks will fly overhead just waiting for me to scare up weed rats or field mice, then they'll dive down within inches of the mower deck and grab the rat, so these birds have NO FEAR of anything

Birds are a problem around airports, as we know, and many things have been done to scare them off, including prey birds.

Once, I was given an ultrasonic device for my car, in order to avoid running over wild animals in the country road I had to use every night.
The device worked flawlessly for many years.
Maybe something similar could be effective against confrontative birds.

your confused

hawks attack buzzards fairly often buzzards seem to think sail planes belong perhaps there is a connection

Never try to outfly a bird, It can't be done.

There are occasional bird strikes on control line airplanes, usually on the lines. Not good for either bird or airplane. I've put a free flight, gliding along, into a thermal with buzzards several times. The freeflight will go up right past them because of its much lighter wing loading.

Hes not confused. The original #2 post was deleted by a mod for good reason. Every post then got bumped up one. Post three is now number two and so on.

Cheers.

Political correctness is a cancer eating this country, and you can see it on RCU over and over.

No one can be offended by anything unless they want to be offended, plain and simple. Do you get on here and just start bashing everyone, of course not, with a few exceptions we're adults (mostly). Some people have nothing better to do but try to embarrass, flame, degrade, and otherwise trash someone else. I have my own personal RCU member who likes to bash me no matter what the subject, or what is said, yet no one has removed any of his posts, nor have I asked, because I just don't care what people say.

But I guess since there are no winner and losers anymore, just winners we get what we have coming to us.

I still believe not everyone gets a trophy, and if you don't like what someone says tough, don't listen anymore.

What happened to the country I grew up in?

OK everyone, when I first saw this thread, I responded with a smart aleck remark regarding how to handle an aggressive bird. I was making light of an obviously frustrating incident. Personally I didn't think it was all that bad but apparently several people did. That is fine, we don't all have to agree all of the time. I also don't mind the fact that it was removed. The moderator has a job to do and he did it; I absolutely respect that. I know it is nothing personal. I am the last one who wants to overstep any of the posting rules here on RCU or make anyone feel uncomfortable in participating.

I do wish however it had been brought up to me first by anyone who was concerned in an objective manner, maybe in a post or PM politely expressing any concerns. Chances are I would have understood immediately and edited the post in question even if I didn't 100% agree. You'd be surprised how well things can go if you take a moment to breathe, not panic and have reasonable, open communication with someone before jumping to any conclusions or turning them in for something they may have had no idea they even did. Especially when you do not know anything about that person or what their intent was when posting something.

I also have some strong opinions on the political correctness stuff and I would love to express them but this is not the place. The last thing I want to see is a discussion dragged off into some other direction regardless of which side of it I happen to be on.

The original post is a legitimate and interesting question. I think it is best to focus on that question and the hobby in general that we all do share and agree on.

So with that said let's stick to birds attacking aircraft and how to deal with it.

Well said, ChuckW[sm=thumbs_up.gif]
Bird behavior is easier to understand than some of human behavior, since it is simpler and more natural.

I've tried "out flying" the hawks and I agree that it can't be done. They can fly circles around anything I've chased them with. They also have the obvious advantage of having a self contained control system VS a guy standing 300 feet away with a radio in his hands.

If a nice, quiet glider had a shrieking siren that the pilot could activate by surprise... it would either scare the bird away, or infuriate it even more.......

My experience with hawks has always led me to believe that they think I (my plane) am trying to steel their food. Rarely have I ever thermaled with them where they dont make runs at my plane.

I think ChuckW hit the nail on the head.

As my background would suggest, I also detest political correctness. The deletion of the post was not in the interest of political correctness, as most have determined. The thread remains because it is a good subject and, as seems, a good source for discussion.

A moderator is often placed in the interesting position to determine when something may or may not violate RCU rules for posting. The deletion of a post is not something that is directed to a person or done so maliciously, but is to enforce the rules of RCU.

Our job is to both protect the posters from some spiteful posters, and I am sure every one of you have read some posts that are not very complementary, and to enforce the rules. RCU can't be put in a position where someone puts something in a post that is inflamatory or promotes voilation of a law, no matter how much in jest it is done.

We have absolutely no idea what the mindset is of the person making a post, what the intentions are, no matter what the post. We, for the most part, leave things alone, but occasionally, we will delete something that some may think should remain.

It's a fun job, but some times, it's somewhat difficult to make decisions that may upset the applecart. Hey, we get paid huge amounts of money to do this job... Lighten up, folks, and accept that we do our jobs as best we can.

Thanks, ChuckW. I appreciate your candor and your understanding.

Now, as a part of continuing the disucssion, two years ago, I was flying my Excelleron 90. I was making a trm pass when I heard a "whump" type of noise. At the time I heard the noise, I saw a seagull about, oh, 50 feet away. No big deal. I continued flying for about 12 minutes, then set up for a landing. The landing was unusually rough for the conditions, but I just decided that it was my slop for the first flight of the day, and went out and picked up my plane.

When I looked at it, there were white feathers hanging from the back of my plane, and the tail wheel assembly was missing. Eventually, I found the tail wheel, it was in a spot that was pretty much directly under where I though I heard this "whump" noise. As it turns out, I actually hit the seagull. It flew away. The reason I saw it about 50 feet away was the delay from the time I actually hit the bird to the time I actually heard the noise.

We often have buzzards out at the field, it's in a remote location and we often find deer carcus's lying around.. often killed by Coyotes, and the buzzards are usually eating dinner at the time we arrive. Then, they hang around while we fly, often we fly among them, but not intentionally. After I hit the seagull, I realized how lucky both me and the seagull were. So, I avoid flying among the birds.

CGr.

When attacked, Dive and start pulling loops! This is not a natural act, and will deture them. But mommy Hawk will sure yell at you, then I look for lift along another treeline.
-Snuts-

I've never done gliding/soaring, nor have I done SAM flying, which is essentially the same thing but with powered old-time aircraft... climb and glide sort of stuff. I've seen the effects of thermals on the SAM aircraft, and with one of our members that is a prominent glider pilot (world known, in fact). I've seen these guys up there for what seems forever. And, they are way up there, too.

I've not seen birds "harassing" them but I can see that happening, especially at our field, which is somewhat in the boonies (we call it the piney's).... yeah, NJ is not all bricks and roads.. and I imagine that, especially with the SAM guys, there are stories about them dodging birds while flying.

SAM = Society of Antique Modelers http://www.antiquemodeler.org/

CGr.

One of the problems with postings is the inability to interject inflection.
Sometimes it is hard to tell when someone is joking.
Probably a good idea to not suggest shooting anything,
even those that deserve being shot.

On the otherside, we flew yesteday with 15 wild pigs.
Some were babies. They paid us no mind and kept eating.
My second experience with wild pigs, first in the daytime.

Good Luck,
KW_Counter

Please be kind to the birds. Were it not for the birds, you probably would not be flying at all. Man yearned and learned to fly by imitating nature.

If the birds happen to 'own' a certain area you should just find another area to fly in. Most hobbyists are rightfully respectful of nature.

Seeing 15 pigs flying should make headlines. Except in Washington state.