Things We See When Flying.

[farri]

Went for a fly,as I very often do, when I got home from work this afternoon, and there it was, swiming on the surface of the Mulgrave river, at the bottom of our property,a Crocodile I estimated to be about 3 to 4 meters long,saw one about the same size in the Russell river a week ago.

 

Tell us some of the things you`ve seen when flying around.

 

Cheers,

 

Frank.

 

 

[Spin]

Used to paraglide off a steep dune slope, with cottages and low apartment blocks scattered amongst the bush. Gave more than one nubile maiden a fright as I flew slowly past a balcony, as they paraded around in the altogether, quite content that no-one could see in.

 

Ah, getting quite nostalgic thinking of those times, floating about for hours at a time and then calling down our drinks order to the beach bar in the late afternoon, as the lift faded.

 

 

[Guest Brett Campany]

Seen a few big sharks while flying around the coastline of Perth and the south west. Lots of fires more recently as well, but the best was watching the Fighter Combat School tourism flights doing aeros just off shore. Great to watch from around 1000ft.

 

 

[farri]

Gave more than one nubile maiden a fright as I flew slowly past a balcony, as they paraded around in the altogether, quite content that no-one could see in.

Definitely beats Crocodiles.

 

Frank.

 

 

[Ultralights]

quite a few times i have seen whales off the coast of Syd while flying a V1.

 

 

[Thx1137]

Hmm. The coolest thing for me so far is seeing two black specks heading in my general direction. I said the the instructor "those aren't aircraft are they" and several seconds later a pair of what I think were eagles glided past. They were rather big and I actually felt a bit awstruck and a little kinship, they were quite majestic. They got within about 15 to 20 meters away to my right and almost level with the wheels.

 

I think we were cruising at about 3500 feet.

 

Steven.

 

 

[mAgNeToDrOp]

Personally when I see the wedgetail Eagles I get a lump in my throat but thats just me,( i often hear stories of glider pilots sharing a thermal with a pair) as long as we don't end up disputing right of way :) would hate to have a half-live XXXXed off wedgy on my lap while I'm trying to go through my forced landing checks......

 

 

[farri]

Personally when I see the wedgetail Eagles I get a lump in my throat but thats just me,( i often hear stories of glider pilots sharing a thermal with a pair) ...

Hey,I do that with the Drifter.

 

There are osprey ( sea eagles)and whistling kites catching the thermals here and I simply join them and fly around with them,they don`t seem to mind very much,I find it a magic experience,even saw a wedgetail eagle go past,one day.

 

Frank.

 

 

[Ferris]

I've had a couple of close encounters with eagles and they definetly put a lump in the throat. Over the Grampians at about 2000 feet, had an eagle that just didn't see us, and I had just enough time to go "oh shyte", and in the end we missed by a bee's whisker, and the second ocassion over Lake Albacutya (which is a dry lake) had an eagle, dive towards us. I'm pretty certain he was trying to attack, and when I checked my position, I was fairly close to an eagle's nest. Fair chance it was being territorial. I have heard of two other first hand accounts of eagles attacking aircraft, one of them tried to get inside a doors-off chopper. The only thing that stopped the eagle getting in, was it's wing span.

 

 

[eastmeg2]

Have seen plenty of eagles flying trikes and at trike speeds there has always been plenty of time for one of us to gently alter course.

 

I'm yet to see or hear of an eagle trying to attack a trike, perhaps a trikes rear undercarriage looks like a big pair of talons . . . all the same I try to avoid the potential attack zone below them once spotted.

 

 

[facthunter]

Sights from the Sky.

 

When I used to do shark-spotting in the Newcastle area in the mid-60's, there was one weekend when the number of sharks was extremely large. My statements were received with some skepticism by a few beach types, so I took the president of the surf board riders assoc. up with me on the next day and he reacted by getting quite ill, and said that he was going to sell his board. Many of them were hammerheads and all were quite large. I guess the others were bronze whalers.

 

The other occasion which was the most stunning thing thay I have EVER seen was coming back from Perth when bits of Skylab entered the earths atmosphere just in front of the aircraft, to it's left and spread across the entire arc of the sky to the south and went out into space again. and ceased to be incandescent. It seemed as if it was only a few thousand feet above us, and the most brilliant pyrotechnic display you could imagine. I didn't wake the passengers as it would have created a bit of unwanted pandemonium maybe.

 

There was nothing about it in the papers, so it must have only been observable over a small area of remote central australia.. I can recall plenty of others which I will not bore you with. (at this stage).. Nev.

 

 

[Gibbo]

Best sight (and most worrisum!) was a f-18 about 300' above me as I was taking off from an 'unimproved' airstrip 45 nm n/e of Roma about 9am one morning. Yes I felt the warmth and the wake. lol. I did get a lighthearted radio call after the incident asking about how well cooked the toast was. lol

 

Eagles seem to be the most common - Nothing like seeing a wedgy pull it's wings in about 30' above and in front of you.. I was at 5000' at the time over the lake west of emerald.

 

A Pelican deciding to cross in front of me just as I touched down @ Boulia also made things interesting.

 

 

[farri]

Have seen plenty of eagles flying trikes and I'm yet to see or hear of an eagle trying to attack a trike.

Eastmeg I hope it was you flying the Trikes and not the eagles,Could be that everything other than Trikes and Drifters are so bamn ugly to them.

 

Seriously though,I read an article in the Readers Digest where a lady who was competing in the world championship Para Gliding cpmpition,here in Australia,only a little while back,was attacked by two Wedgetail eagles and one eventually got tangled in the lines,very close to her face and kept trying to get her with it`s tallons.

 

Using a technique whereby she pulled tight down on the lines then released them suddenly she was finaly able to free the bird,by this stage she said that she was so unnerved that she decided to land,however, the birds continued to chase her until she was almost on the ground.

 

I think we all know that all birds are no joke and we must be carefull.

 

Frank.

 

 

[farri]

The other occasion which was the most stunning thing thay I have EVER seen was coming back from Perth when bits of Skylab entered the earths atmosphere just in front of the aircraft, to it's left and spread across the entire arc of the sky to the south and went out into space again. and ceased to be incandescent. It seemed as if it was only a few thousand feet above us. I can recall plenty of others which I will not bore you with. (at this stage).. Nev.

Facthunter,that`s gota beat Crocks also though a bit more of a wory.

 

Hey,you won`t be boring me,give us more.

 

Frank.

 

 

[farri]

Best sight (and most worrisum!) was a f-18 about 300' above me as I was taking off from an 'unimproved' airstrip

I was in my training area at 1500 feet in the Drifter with a student in the front seat and as I looked to my left an F111 came up fron behind,went flying past at almost the same altitude,it was no more than 750 meters away and it was banked horozintaly to the left,it did a climbing turn,went over the Graham Range and continued out to sea.

 

I heard no noise and felt no turbulence and I will never know if it even saw us.

 

Frank.

 

 

[maulonir]

Went for a fly north yesterday and came across a strip with a hanger beside it and what looked like a drifter parked inside. There was also a bloke in a orange shirt waving at me.

 

Was that you Frank?

 

Rob

 

 

[farri]

There was also a bloke in a orange shirt waving at me. Was that you Frank?

Rob

G`Day Rob,Realy was me and I was very happy to see you,havn`t seen a Gyro around for years :thumb_up: ,please come in and say G`Day some time.

 

Cheers,

 

Frank.

 

 

[maulonir]

I was a bit pushed for time on Sunday as I was running out of daylight but I will drop in another day now I know where you are. :)

 

Rob