I've had a dozen or so birds circling above various of my 3d planes. In my back yard no less.

I have had them big blaCK crows come in at times to check out my t-28..I always try and turn the tables and chase em. ( very hard to catch, but fun )

When I fire up one of my 450 clones all creatures big and small hide in the trees.

EP airplanes are a different story though. I am often visited by these guys...

A turkey buzzard has a wing span over 60 inches and although they are not aggressive they can be very curious. The last time a couple of them invaded my air space I was flying a fast 34" pylon racer and I simply could not resist giving them a little flying lesson. It did not take long to convince them to fly elsewhere.

Originally Posted by Ranandar

When I fire up one of my 450 clones all creatures big and small hide in the trees.

EP airplanes are a different story though. I am often visited by these guys...

A turkey buzzard has a wing span over 60 inches and although they are not aggressive they can be very curious. The last time a couple of them invaded my air space I was flying a fast 34" pylon racer and I simply could not resist giving them a little flying lesson. It did not take long to convince them to fly elsewhere.

The buzzards come out 4 or 5 deep but they just circle from above. It's the smaller birds that make agressive pass and come close as if to attack, but they probaly know better then to get in the rotors.

I've had dragonflies and swallows make brief passes at my Genius CP. An American Kestrel followed my V120D02s through several tight turns and had its talons extended. No actual contact though.

Gotta wonder if color, noise and/or flying style has any effect.

I learned to fly on big Gentle Lady two meter glider. My instructor used ridge lift to get it up, then let me fly it out in front of the ridge until I could launch it myself.
Many times I would follow the hawks circling in a thermal and they more or less ignored me like I was a member of the family. I was invading their territory, and with a little over a 6 ft wingspan I should have looked like a threat.

Originally Posted by karlik

Gotta wonder if color, noise and/or flying style has any effect.

I learned to fly on big Gentle Lady two meter glider. My instructor used ridge lift to get it up, then let me fly it out in front of the ridge until I could launch it myself.
Many times I would follow the hawks circling in a thermal and they more or less ignored me like I was a member of the family. I was invading their territory, and with a little over a 6 ft wingspan I should have looked like a threat.

It's probaly got to do alot with the breed of bird and maybe season. They dont seem to attack helicopters as much as planes though. I believe they can hear the rotors choping pretty good when they get 4 or 5 feet from it and back off.

Originally Posted by karlik

I'm up in the northwest - learned to fly on a falcon 40 FP. When I got past learning to hover and orientations and started to fly around, the original paint on the canopy got real hard to see against the fir trees in the background, so I repainted with fluorescent paint.
On my second test flight, a female hummingbird came in too close and I stopped and went into hover. She came in real close, then flew away a little, stopped, and flew away little, then came back close, did a little left and right stuff, backed off a little and waited… I really got the impression she saying “follow me.”
While she was flirting with my heli, I realized it looked an awful lot like a male hummer – all yellow with a bright red chest and throat.
I don't think she actually thought it was a male, but I'm pretty sure she was trying to figure out what it it really was.

Well I am glad our hummingbirds are not orange and yellow as that is the color of my canopy too! Ours are green with white chests and the males have a red throat, hence the name 'ruby throat hummingbird'.

Originally Posted by KYChopper

Well I am glad our hummingbirds are not orange and yellow as that is the color of my canopy too!

I'm really glad for ya' too, slick. Any other problems you feel you need to vent about? Gettin pretty close to bed time there in kentucky and we wouldn't want you tryin' to go sleep with any unresolved issues.

Originally Posted by karlik

I'm really glad for ya' too, slick. Any other problems you feel you need to vent about? Gettin pretty close to bed time there in kentucky and we wouldn't want you tryin' to go sleep with any unresolved issues.

Wher did that come from ?

Originally Posted by Dejavu*Xion

Wher did that come from ?

Not enough sleep?

Originally Posted by jasmine2501

Not enough sleep?

Me ? him? who ? lol..I danno ~ Im lost ..All i know is, I do like it when birds come in to check it all out. The sporting chase is on. I have yet to come close. Its hard enough chasing down a freinds plane let alone a bird.

This is funny. I was just flying in my back yard recently and one of those big B-52 sized black bumblebees took a ride through my 130 Xs rotor arc. Make quite a nice THWACK! sound. The bee lost terribly and the 130 X kept truckin'.

Originally Posted by Dejavu*Xion

Wher did that come from ?

It was never my intention to recreate a hummingbird, and I don't appreciate an "ornithologist" explaining to me what I did wrong.

Ok, but wow... I didn't see that at all.