When the first thermal-induced dust devil of the season raced through the set up area, tipping over gliders (not mine, I threw myself over her), we knew it might be a great day at Quest.
I launched poorly, rocketing off the cart, scaring the hell out of myself and not helping my tug pilot, Zack, relax much either. I pulled his Dragonfly's tail upward as we sped towards the end of the runway, but he kept tugging back on the stick and eventually got airborne. I think I just launched too heads-up (and certainly got hit by a thermal or prop wash or both), and didn't have the authority to put the bar to my knees. Zack did say afterwards mine was the worst of the gnarly-ass tows, but I should have probably hung on longer anyhow. I pinned off at about 2000 feet because we were climbing well and I had had ENOUGH already.
I won't chew this to death though it really was the best day we have had for months. I actually saw 500 up for prolonged periods. I froze my butt off with Paul, Bo, Larry, John Hope (from MD), James from England, as well as a few other pilots.
Some really cool things happened. At about 4600 feet, I reached "cloudbase." The clouds were little wispy things, and I sailed right up into them. I punched my hand through the mist and part of me was below the cloud and part above. But that wasn't the best part.
I noticed Larry circling with a couple of birds. They looked so great together that I left the lift I had (I was so high and so friggin' cold I didn't care one whit about the risk) and sailed over to them. When I got there, they all went on glide -- the thermal had obviously died. BAD timing. I took off on glide, too, on a slightly different path, but could no longer see the birds. I looked behind me at some point, to check out what might be happening there. Then I saw it.
This huge, brown and black, eagle or falcon or something, was UNDER my left wing. I screamed in shock, wondering if I was under attack. I could see his eyes and his beak and the front of his wings. He cocked his head towards me when I screamed, but he didn't seem aggressive. He kept looking at me, turning his head like birds do, sideways so he could see me. I concentrated on flying my Angel again (she has so many opinions; when I flew her 3/4 VG and tried to turn in a thermal, we continued on for about half a mile before she would respond at all).
When I turned to look again, though, my beautiful bird of prey still soared with me. Literally, he was UNDER my wing. I have never been so close to a bird like this before, except when I paid to hold the Peregrine Falcon at the Howie-in-the-Hills Fair 3 years ago. Eventually "my" bird flew off, but he was 2 or perhaps 3 feet away for a long time.
I have never had anything like this happen before. Have you?
My sister is visiting (she ran the Disney Marathon yesterday) and we are driving up to dine with my folks tonight -- oh, and they just called, I gotta hurry, so we didn't go XC. I flew about 2 hours.
Lauren
have you ever had this happen?
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
have you ever had this happen?
Way cool, Lauren! Besides being sociable, I wonder if the bird was
getting any aerodynamic benefit from being under your wing? - Hugh
getting any aerodynamic benefit from being under your wing? - Hugh
-
John Simon
- Posts: 300
- Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2005 12:33 pm
have you ever had this happen?
Cool story Lauren,
I had a Red Tail fly just aft of my right wing tip for at least 2 or 3 or
4 minutes once... AWESOME. As I turned he flew perfect formation with me
and even followed me on glide for a while then peeled off. Really, really
cool... but maybe he was 6-8 feet behind my wing. He crossed from right to
left wing as I reversed turns too. Haven't seen anything like that since
(it was early 2005 at Highland).
Jealous of the flying down there... BTW, when is the 2nd annual Tjaden
comp? I am trying to see if I'll have the time off. It's gonna be hard.
Take care,
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Hugh McElrath [mailto:mcelrah@verizon.net]
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 9:18 PM
To: hg_forum@chgpa.org
Subject: Re: have you ever had this happen?
Way cool, Lauren! Besides being sociable, I wonder if the bird was
getting any aerodynamic benefit from being under your wing? - Hugh
I had a Red Tail fly just aft of my right wing tip for at least 2 or 3 or
4 minutes once... AWESOME. As I turned he flew perfect formation with me
and even followed me on glide for a while then peeled off. Really, really
cool... but maybe he was 6-8 feet behind my wing. He crossed from right to
left wing as I reversed turns too. Haven't seen anything like that since
(it was early 2005 at Highland).
Jealous of the flying down there... BTW, when is the 2nd annual Tjaden
comp? I am trying to see if I'll have the time off. It's gonna be hard.
Take care,
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Hugh McElrath [mailto:mcelrah@verizon.net]
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 9:18 PM
To: hg_forum@chgpa.org
Subject: Re: have you ever had this happen?
Way cool, Lauren! Besides being sociable, I wonder if the bird was
getting any aerodynamic benefit from being under your wing? - Hugh
Lauren,
I've never had a bird 'hang out' and follow under my wing. Too bad you didn't have a camera with you ... what a cool shot that would have made
Most of my bird encounters have been brief. Most were really cool. One was not cool ...it was in Utah (Cedar City) in the springtime, sometime in the mid-80's. I had launched from Cedar Mtn (a really awesome site) and was working lift over nearby Square Mtn when a mature bald eagle joined me for two full turns ... 180 degrees across from me. I was jazzed ... but only for a few moments.
The darn bird suddenly circled behind me and began swooping, diving towards my legs
over and over - this bird was trying to GET me.
I left the thermal, pulled VG and began flying away from the mountain and the bird kept chasing me and making these threatening dives, with talons extended. I kept flying faster to get away. I called on the radio (CB) to my flying buddies to tell them about the bird - they just laughed at me
Eventually, the bird turned and flew back to the mountain. It was then that I realized I was realllly low, over a sea of trees with no LZ options.
Fortunately, I was able to find some lift and get to an LZ, but the flight was basically over.
I love flying with birds, but I hope not to encounter any agressive eagles during nesting season.
'Spark
I've never had a bird 'hang out' and follow under my wing. Too bad you didn't have a camera with you ... what a cool shot that would have made
Most of my bird encounters have been brief. Most were really cool. One was not cool ...it was in Utah (Cedar City) in the springtime, sometime in the mid-80's. I had launched from Cedar Mtn (a really awesome site) and was working lift over nearby Square Mtn when a mature bald eagle joined me for two full turns ... 180 degrees across from me. I was jazzed ... but only for a few moments.
The darn bird suddenly circled behind me and began swooping, diving towards my legs
over and over - this bird was trying to GET me. I left the thermal, pulled VG and began flying away from the mountain and the bird kept chasing me and making these threatening dives, with talons extended. I kept flying faster to get away. I called on the radio (CB) to my flying buddies to tell them about the bird - they just laughed at me
Eventually, the bird turned and flew back to the mountain. It was then that I realized I was realllly low, over a sea of trees with no LZ options.
Fortunately, I was able to find some lift and get to an LZ, but the flight was basically over.
I love flying with birds, but I hope not to encounter any agressive eagles during nesting season.
'Spark
Some birds bite
Years ago in Australia I was setting up one day on Porepunka Hill when I noticed a Brazilian pilot putting some clear packing tape on the upper surface of his glider, out toward the tip. I walked over to see what he was up too and then saw that he was covering what looked to be icepick holes in his upper surface, perhaps half a dozen in all. He explained that the local, large wedge tailed eagles were extremely aggressive and prone to actually striking gliders during this the nesting season. Very interesting.
A couple of days later the comp had moved to the Bucklands Gap site and I was stuck on the ridge by myself, having launched too late, when I first heard and then saw an enormous wedgie parked just off my right tip. Screaming, and with his talons deployed while giving me the evil eye, he was pissed. Over a period of some ten minutes he moved around, sometimes closer or further away, and occasionally invisible above the tip, but always audible. He never took any diving passes at me, and after a while he departed. I thought no more of him until later that day when breaking down the glider I noticed that my kevlar-reinforced leading edge had a two inch slice in it, as clean as though it had been done with a razor knife. Now it was my turn to use the packing tape.
Sneaky bastard.
Pete Lehmann
A couple of days later the comp had moved to the Bucklands Gap site and I was stuck on the ridge by myself, having launched too late, when I first heard and then saw an enormous wedgie parked just off my right tip. Screaming, and with his talons deployed while giving me the evil eye, he was pissed. Over a period of some ten minutes he moved around, sometimes closer or further away, and occasionally invisible above the tip, but always audible. He never took any diving passes at me, and after a while he departed. I thought no more of him until later that day when breaking down the glider I noticed that my kevlar-reinforced leading edge had a two inch slice in it, as clean as though it had been done with a razor knife. Now it was my turn to use the packing tape.
Sneaky bastard.
Pete Lehmann
Pete Lehmann