Sport Pilot Talk

yozz25 · Joined: 18 Dec 2009 Posts: 185 Location: vegas

Did pattern work today, normal nonsense.

Went up after touch and go, up 500 ft, turned right, then turned right again to downwind, and saw a few black birds shoot by real quick perhaps 50-100 in front of plane, from left to right, perhaps 800 ft agl. It was fast.

I simply said "wow". But it didn't rattle me since it went by very fast.

CFI had a cow, he said "why didn't you react to the birds"? "we could have gotten killed you know"!!!!!!!!!

I was puzzled, confused, thought to myself, "what the hell was I to do"? "they came and went in a flash" He never said what I was to do. Was I to go up, down, left, right? abruptly? Still don't know.

Sure, they could have brought us down, but what could I have done, better yet, why didn't he react?

What did I learn? Birds happens, gotta be prepared, but yet they are fast as hell. Also, What is CFI's problem? Strange, other stuff happened,but the birds took the cake.

yozz
:?:

rfane · Joined: 26 Apr 2006 Posts: 214 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

I think your CFI is a bit overreactive. A blackbird or two would dent that Remos pretty good, but shouldn't be deadly. I saw 3 big Pelicans in tight formation go close by me on Friday.

Maintain your altitude and course. The birds will tend to dive to get out of the way. Over controlling the plane too sharply in reaction to close birds, could be more deadly, if you overstress the airplane.

yozz25 · Joined: 18 Dec 2009 Posts: 185 Location: vegas

This particular CFI is new, just got his license in april. Other guy went to fly planes to the grand canyon, or whatever.

I believe he is just scared, since he is sitting there wondering if the student if going to kill him or not. He is also learning how to teach, not an easy thing, and as I've said in past posts, teaching should be smooth, with smooth instructions, and this comes with experience and confidence.

I move the controls slowly, that is my nature. This drives him crazy since if we are in pattern and the speed or height drops a bit, he screams to add power and I slowly push the throttle in to pick things up. The remos is sensative.

After today's fiasco he told me I'm improving. I said "well, one doesn't get worse, one can only improve"

He astonished me. He said that some of his students are actually getting worse. Wow! A revalation. I told him that if they are geting worse, then it means they are being confused, frustrated, and fatigued. He only started teaching in april. Oy vey!!!!!!

But I don't give up. I told him that we are going to speak about how we are going to run our pattern. I said first we get up to pattern height, 1000 agl parallel to runway, we cut power to 4000 rpm, finally figured that out on trial and error, then abreat numbers we cut power to about 3000 rpm, we hold altitude until we can safely put in first level of flaps, then we proceed to nose down and make our leg, more flaps, and final where we eyeball the runway and make adjustments according to our distance, speed and height.

I need a plan, since he didn't have any, so I made my own. I promised to keep the speed over 60, and I can't hold an exact 65, and it may even go to 70.

Id' love to meet his other students for a pow wow.
yozz
Hmm,maybe I'll get some popcorn and rent the birds by hitchcock tonight.
:evil:

bitten192 · Joined: 21 Dec 2009 Posts: 50 Location: RICHLAND WA USA

Ditto with Rfne. Hold your course and duck under the panel below the windscreen. If possible pull the power but not if you are low, slow and in the pattern. Birds typically will dive out of your way. I have had numerous encounters with geese and seagulls here in the Northwest. They are a lot better at avoiding you than visa versa. See

http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/inst_reports2.cfm?article=3712

Ernie
CFI/ 35 years experience
Remos G3/600

yozz25 · Joined: 18 Dec 2009 Posts: 185 Location: vegas

Exactly what I did was not react. Actually it happened so fast, I couldn't react, I just watched and they flew by.

Out here it's mostly blackbirds, crows. Haven't seen any gulls or geese. I think if a goose were to hit with remos it would knock us silly. But if the crow were to be ground by the prop, then perhaps we would have gone down.

I think I did good, simply kept my cool, didn't react on controls, since there was no hit. CFI was livid, but on the other hand, I have the "I don't really care attitude at times" This is what probably drove him crazy.

He was crabby through the whole flight, think I'll give him some weed to calm down.

yozz
:)

drseti · Joined: 28 Nov 2009 Posts: 1186 Location: Lock Haven PA

yozz25 wrote: He never said what I was to do. Was I to go up, down, left, right? abruptly? Still don't know.

The preferred course of action (if you have time to react at all) is to climb. When they sense danger, birds tend to fold their wings and dive (they can do that pretty quickly). Since you were in the pattern, adding full power and hauling back on the stick would be the best response-- your climb performance is better than theirs!

Besides, spinning up the Cuisinart prop assures you shredded tweet for breakfast...

AZPilot · Joined: 25 Jun 2009 Posts: 156

Try to avoid geese.

ALSO:

http://www.birdstrikenews.com/

yozz25 · Joined: 18 Dec 2009 Posts: 185 Location: vegas

I prefer crow, it's lean meat, tasty, and good when breaded and put in the deep fryer. Spitting out the feathers is another story.

Geese, too fatty, a hassle to cook, besides with my back, it would be a schlep to carry.

Look if a goose would have came through the windshield, hopefully it would have got stuck in the CFI's mouth, but in reality, the remos as small as it is, it would have destroyed the windshield, and probably did some major damage inside, along with the passengers.

Unless you have time to react, then there is nothing you can really do.

Think I'll put a crow in a bird cage and hang it in the cabin next time we go up.

yozz
:evil:

drseti · Joined: 28 Nov 2009 Posts: 1186 Location: Lock Haven PA

yozz25 wrote:
Think I'll put a crow in a bird cage and hang it in the cabin next time we go up.

That should be a canary, like the coal miners use.

rsteele · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 259

Anybody see the Red Bull Air Race last year where Hanas Arch hit a pelican? In San Diego, I think.

It was so fast the camera barely caught it. It hit his horizontal stab and just exploded. Only god knows why it didn't rip off the stab. It did put a big hole in it. At 200mph that's a lot energy. He finished the course, but then retired from the contest. That's one tough plane.

A Zenith 601 was downed in OZ a couple of years ago when a pelican impacted the canopy. Two souls lost.

I love birds. Have bird feeders in the back yard. Own a parrot. But they are really scary to get close to in a plane. I've had to wait on the runway for seagulls to decide to leave. Also flown along beside an eagle while on base. I'd rather not repeat those experiences.

Ron

FastEddieB · Joined: 07 Jan 2009 Posts: 186 Location: Mineral Bluff, GA

Quote: This particular CFI is new, just got his license in april...I believe he is just scared, since he is sitting there wondering if the student if going to kill him or not.

Yet another seriously flawed instructor! :shock:

Wow, you've really had some bad luck!!! :roll:

FastEddieB · Joined: 07 Jan 2009 Posts: 186 Location: Mineral Bluff, GA

Deleted duplicate post - sorry

bryancobb · Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 3:38 pm Post subject: Rules of the Road

Who must yield according to the FAA?? The most maneuverable aircraft!!
I think a bird is a helluva lot more maneuverable than a plane!!
( I don't really mean to imply that FAA says plane has ROW over birds )
JOKE!!

In US Army helicopter flight school, my stick-buddy was flying the UH-1H at 90kts.
Hit a Vulture! It came through chin bubble on his side. Head got squeezed between his Anti-Torque pedals. It puked all of its' carrion in the cockpit and we could barely fly for the stink!

yozz25 · Joined: 18 Dec 2009 Posts: 185 Location: vegas

Yet another seriously flawed instructor!

Wow, you've really had some bad luck!!!

Nah, it's not luck, it's the nature of humanity. Poor kid is learning the ropes and he is with some old fart that is trying to kill him.

It's like shoes, or sneakers, you find a pair that works great, they wear out, then you can search high and low, and it just ain't the same.

The first guy at the first flight school was the best, that was it. Girl in AZ had her stuff on the remos down pat, these guys don't care who they hire and are still guessing the power settings.

I've learned to tune him out. I've realized that the icing on the cake at this time is simply getting the remos into the right settings and doing a nice stabilized landing. After the bird fiasco I let him know that, he said he will think about how to do it.

In all honesty, if I was allowed to, I'd go up and run the circles myself and probably with some peace and quite would grease it after several tries.

Sometimes no input at all is what it takes.
yozz