Encounters with birds of prey

[Twister65]

I had my first encounter with a bird of prey this morning. It was some kind of hawk or a falcon. I'm guessing a falcon.

I saw it circling way above, so I flew toward it. I guess I got a little close and it didn't like that, so it took swooped toward my SC.

I assume that was the warning.

I avoided it.. then decided to fly back again. The second time it went into a full on attack dive at my plane. I didn't even think I was that close. I banked hard left and nose down to avoid it.

No more pissing off the bird, so I just flew in a large circle at a lower altitude, sort of mimicking how the bird was flying. It looked pretty cool. The bird, still circling, kept getting lower, closer to my plane.

You could see it do a bit of a stall like it thought about it attacking again, but had second thoughts.

I guess the bird decided my plane wasn't worth the effort and flew further away, still circling.

It would have been pretty cool to get on video, but we didn't have anything to film it with.

Scott

[mizzarty]

That's crazy!!! I had small birds chasing my plane, thinking it was predator, but that story tops it by a lot!!!

[mrmugen]

That is a great story! I was chasing seagulls yesterday with the sc but none of them were brave enough to try to fight it.....lol. Wish I could of seen what you did...sounds awesome!

[Twister65]

I've chased seagulls before too. They chicken out too easily.

Birds of prey are definitely more interesting. I probably won't do it again. I'm sure my plane would lose if it managed to grab hold of it. I wouldn't want the bird to get injured either.

Scott

[Twister65]

I had a look at some pictures on google of what falcons and hawks look like from below. The look of a falcon's wingspan and shape compared to a hawk leads me to believe that it was a hawk and not a falcon.

Scott

[jiml]

Flying with birds is fun.
I too have circled with hawks, they circle in thermals so if you stay near them you are in a thermal and getting some free lift.
Also have done this with large white pelicans when flying on floats. They hang around the river here in the summer.
The only birds I had chase the plane were two ducks when I unknowingly circled near where they were nesting.

[thecreepa117]

Lol, I tried to fly with a large bird today, but it was in a rush and I was getting low on power.

[steveareno]

Would be great to get a camera up to take some in flight pics of the hawks. falcons have thinner wings and don't thermal as much as hawks, eagles, vultures. There is a pair of perigrin falcons that nest on a building a few miles from my field. I have seen them fly by when I am in the air but they just keep going. No interest in my planes and I have no interest in bothering them. Also remember that many species of birds are protected and harassing them could land you with a fine or worse.

[cubcrazy]

There is a large group of Hawks in my neighborhood that I join up with almost everyday. Ironically even though they are gliding they are hard to keep up with. Once I was engaged by a group of seagulls and they wouldnt leave me alone. If I went after them they would run, but when I would turn away they would chase. Once I was getting low on power and heading for the hard deck and one chased me all the way down to about 5 ft till I pulled up which scared it away; I did a hammerhead and finished with a nice 3 point in grass. As for the Hawk Squadron I fly with, they seem to act like my SC isnt worth their time. I had a Citabria(Kinda like a full scale SC) fly low and slow over my runway (street behind my house) and take a look at my SC, waved out the window and continued on its way. Everybody share the sky man...thats what I say.

[airjoey]

A couple of weeks ago, I was with the entire family at dusk for my 4th outing with the SC. The day before I had my first fully-successful flights. All was going fine when my daughter say "something's following your plane."

It was a bat. A few seconds later, it was joined by another, then another. I was pretty funny but, unlike birds, bats change direction a LOT. I got nervous and on the way down just barely caught the one lone tree in the field and spiraled in. The prop shaft was bent a bit, so that ended a otherwise great flight.

Things have gotten better and I'll outline that in a separate post.

Nice to have a group dedicated to this lovely bird!

Air Joey