Bird Harassment

[knuckles]

Interesting day today. As I was reviewing my video after some flights I noticed a gimbal twitch. This can happen sometimes when I'm in heavy winds but it wasn't really windy. On closer review I saw that a bird swooped past my Phantom. Reviewing the video I saw that it was constantly circling at a distance and diving past. This continued through the flight in the Arizona desert in a canyon area.
I went further down the road probably a mile or so and started to fly through the canyon further down. After reviewing the video again it looked like the same bird or his twin was doing the same thing. I'm assuming it was a hawk but I'm not sure as i didn't get a good close picture more then these. You can see some white on it's head and underside of it's body. I'm glad that I didn't have a bird attack today. I'm not sure why it was so interested in me

 

[dirkclod]

Thought ya might be a snack !!

 

[Happyflyer]

Thought ya might be a snack !!

Or your quad was going to eat the bird's snack. :shock:
.
If you get a moment can you send some Arizona heat up here. 9 degrees right now.

 

[knuckles]

Thought ya might be a snack !!

Or your quad was going to eat the bird's snack. :shock:
.
If you get a moment can you send some Arizona heat up here. 9 degrees right now.

Yeah that was odd that it stuck with me. I've had a fly by before but they moved on.
The weather is nice here and 80's this weekend but in the summer we get 3+ months of 100 degree days. Then it's tough to fly other than really early or almost sunset

 

[Happyflyer]

The weather is nice here and 80's this weekend but in the summer we get 3+ months of 100 degree days. Then it's tough to fly other than really early or almost sunset

Don't know your location in AZ, but I have experienced your heat. First trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, on foot, no mule, second week of July and it was 122 degrees down there. Even with the very low humidity, over 100 degrees gets to be a bit of a drag. If you get too hot I can send you some of Michigan constant cold. It is 9 degrees here now.
Fly safe.

 

[knuckles]

I don't know which is worse extreme heat or cold. The coldest weather I ever flew in was 12 degrees last month in northern Arizona where I did this video. I was flying around sunrise and it was so cold my windshield cracked in half as I was driving.
[vimeo]116480114[/vimeo]

 

[Happyflyer]

Great video Knuckles.
My 2003 trip from Phoenix, Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon, Flagstaff, and then on to the Grand was great. Your video reminded my of going through Oak Creek Canyon. The only two things I had that were better, No white crap and 85 degrees. There are so many spots in AZ to look at it is hard to drive long distance. There is something great to see around every turn. Wish I could go back some day.....

 

[knuckles]

Yep oak creek canyon is one of my favorite places. That was the first time I've seen snow there. In the summer it's full of swimmers going down slide rock.

 

[Ezookiel]

Found this thread while looking to see if anyone else is having bird problems.
I'm having so many bird problems, that I'm getting quite nervous flying the damned thing, and extremely nervous flying over water!! The lakes near me are the best most open places to fly, but unless I'm quite high, and going quite fast, I seem to be a source of endless fascination for every make and model of bird in the area. Some fly endless loops around me, others just buzz past to check me out occasionally, but it's only going to take one to make contact and the chances of losing a couple of grand into the water become extremely high. I'm actually considering how I can make the aircraft more bird resistant in the event of a strike - enclosing the props in wire gauze, so that a bird strike can't stop a prop, (and might leave me some chance of recovering before it crashes) or something even more bird deterring than the sound of the props, and having some kind of ultra-sonic generator as well, or just live with the fact that they seem to buzz it a lot, but haven't ever made any kind of contact, and so far always veer off with a few feet to spare, so I might be worrying for nothing.

[vimeo]118579735[/vimeo]

This video was just this afternoon after work, and was the most obvious of all of the buzz-pasts that were done during the flight, but while I was near the land, small brown birds were doing multiple loops around me, and a large black raven flew straight up behind it, then veered off at the last second, which I only saw because I was flying LOS at the time, rather than FPV.

 

[Happyflyer]

That white one looked like it was just flying along and bird air traffic control told it to veer off.

 

[kitari]

I had a bird actually hit my phantom last summer and all it did was spin around and wobble for a second. I have it on video too, it's actually one of my very first videos, which is painfully obvious as I haven't learned banked turns yet, and I overshoot turns quite often. I miss that warm weather! Plus the lighting in the winter just doesn't look as good as the lighting in the warmer days. Anyways, back on topic. I also had several times where I was flying around and would get swarmed by a huge flock of black birds. They seem to pop up out of nowhere too! Not sure what you could do about it other than bring your quad down and try again somewhere else or fly at low altitude.

 

[dirkclod]

I like to go back at them !

 

[knuckles]

That white bird was scary. I thought the circling hawk was odd but I never had a near attack like that one. Flying in California and Arizona I never had a bird issue before that hawk. Other times birds aren't interested at all though some are around.

 

[PhantomFanatic]

Some birds are very protective of their area and they will attack anything!

This concludes today's bird class.

 

[Ezookiel]

Just from yesterday afternoon's video alone, I found these.
Most seemed to come from behind, then peel off, the black raven centre bottom came up from the ground to go past to the right of me, but not as close as he'd appeared when I saw him do it at the time, he looked closer from my view on the ground than from the view in the air.
One of them, I only ever saw the shadow, he worries me the most, as he's coming from above and behind most of the time, coming from above makes the props more vulnerable.

 

[knuckles]

wow.. well I dunno what about a loud air horn from the ground? It would annoy everyone else around though