Close encounter with 2 eagles

[octave]

I had a close encounter with a pair of Eagles today

 

 

 

[solowflyer]

I had a close encounter with a pair of Eagles today

 

 

Yeah they do give you a bit of a wake up call. They are pretty aware of you and are good at getting out of the way at the last min. I fly ag and have to deal with close encounters of birds on a daily basis when spraying. Watch out for ducks they are incredibly stupid and won't get out of the way.

 

 

[SDQDI]

Yeah they do give you a bit of a wake up call. They are pretty aware of you and are good at getting out of the way at the last min. I fly ag and have to deal with close encounters of birds on a daily basis when spraying. Watch out for ducks they are incredibly stupid and won't get out of the way.

I've found galahs the most unpredictable, haven't had much experience with ducks in a plane but I know they hit about the hardest of any bird for their size when hit in a car or truck:drive:

 

 

[jetjr]

Ive hit most of them....in a 4x4

 

Ducks are dense and stupid no doubt but only low level. Has been said they can swim, run and fly but do none of them well

 

Eagles are clever and usually avoid you with a steep dive

 

Ibis often hang around airports and dont seem to care about you until just before you look like hitting them. Hang around at ~ 1000 AGL too

 

Main issue that scares me it the closing speed, dont notice it when flying until you pass by something not moving much.

 

 

[Dafydd Llewellyn]

Once passed a gaggle of pelicans at 8000 feet over Tenterfield, happily thermalling with yard-long grins on their faces. Don't assume any soaring bird will be at low level.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Has been said they can swim, run and fly but do none of them well

I think that applies to me too. Hopefully I'll fly better once I have a complete plane.

 

 

[flyvulcan]

My highest bird strike was at 9000' in a Macchi. The student was under the instrument flying hood in the back seat (he can't see out at all) and I was giving him a nose high vertical unusual attitude recovery at the time of the strike. I handed control to him at about 120knots and he immediately pushed the throttle to the firewall and the engine just went pfffft and started winding back. We had compressor stalled.

 

We fell out of the UA and set up a glide while I carried out the drill. I remember looking at the altimeter (9000') and the TACAN distance (32nm) and thinking, bugger, a few miles too short to get back to Pearce. Bindoon abandoned was looking pretty good...

 

Anyway, the stall cleared, we landed at Pearce and an inspection of the engine revealed bird guts inside.

 

So don't ever think there won't be any birds that high because clearly, some of them like taking advantage of the view or the jet stream for birds at altitudes where Ultralights rarely venture.

 

 

[djpacro]

Sometimes they take a dislike to people in aeroplanes.

[Dafydd Llewellyn]

I've often come across them when flying gliders; they'll often join a gaggle of thermalling gliders and show us all up. They consider themselves to be the rightful owners of the sky, and they'll compete with a thermalling glider, just to show who's the best. I've had one stay with me to cloudbase, at 7000 feet. I've only seen one attack a glider once - and that was because it came up behind him in a thermal and bumped him (at about 5 knots relative speed) - quite inadvertently, but the eagle was not amused.

 

 

[Bob Llewellyn]

I've often come across them when flying gliders; they'll often join a gaggle of thermalling gliders and show us all up. They consider themselves to be the rightful owners of the sky, and they'll compete with a thermalling glider, just to show who's the best. I've had one stay with me to cloudbase, at 7000 feet. I've only seen one attack a glider once - and that was because it came up behind him in a thermal and bumped him (at about 5 knots relative speed) - quite inadvertently, but the eagle was not amused.

Eagles... NO sense of humour...