Wake surfers of the sky.

[Garfly]

We've looked at these trained geese videos before but I hadn't seen this one which shows the downwash surfers so well. 

 

 

[skippydiesel]

Always amazing and the birds are so keen to go flying.

 

Makes me wonder if birds can actually see airflow/movement.

[facthunter]

I'm sure they "feel" it.  It IS their element after all. Nev

[Garfly]

Yes, it's in their nature to pick-up free lift from each other's wings in their 'V' formation so they just need to scale up that skill.  But it's great to see how they adjust their angle of attack in the glide according to the direction and strength of the flow at different positions.  It's like they flirt with the stall but back off since it'd waste energy to recover and catch up. They love to ride the upwash at the leading edge, too, of course.

 

This is the amazing vid we looked at a couple of years back. 

(I was so impressed I travelled to Cantal and got to fly [as pax] with Christian and his 'les oies')

 

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Garfly