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Hawk Encounter - Coulda' been Bad

snopercod

Well Known Member
Yesterday afternoon I was returning to Asheville from the EAA fly-in at Morristown TN [KMOR]. I was cruising along at 5,500' over the mountains, minding my own business, and all of a sudden a hawk popped up dead ahead. Before I could say "Oh sh*t", he saw me, folded his wings and dived; It was a good thing. He passed barely underneath me and we both lived to fly another day.

Tail Cam Video

(Video taken with my Virb Elite at 1080p Wide)
 
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Wow, that was close. He was directly on line with you. You should be counting your lucky stars today!
 
You should be counting your lucky stars today!
Definitely! I accidentally deleted the video from my cockpit-cam or I would have video of him (or her, as the case may be) right in front of me. I've been told, "Never try to fly under a bird because they always dive." Now I understand. Thanks for your comment.
 
My grandfather had a red tail that would hunt for him. He would take me out to hunt rabbits and grouse. What memories. It still brings tears to my eyes when I hear the screech of a hawk. You are correct - when they face any threat, they dive.

Glad you missed him. I can imagine the repairs and mess!
 
Not true of geese. They will trade speed for altitude and climb. Late downwind without much light left at KARM and had a dozen snow geese right in front of me. They flared, I dove and we all went home happy.
 
Geese in Flight

We were flying northward near Mt Shasta in Northern CA at 10,500 and saw a group of geese pass below me very fast and close. I was on flight following so called it in as a Pirep. The controller asked me to repeat but did pass on the info to the guy behind me at the same altitude.

About 20 minutes later, same altitude as I, but off to the left, I saw a flock of geese in their chevron formation pass by equally as fast. I'm wondering if they didn't break formation because they saw me and figured I was no factor. The first group obviously was way out of formation, so figured they saw me and dove to avoid the big, flashing, noisy thing.

I was surprised that geese were up that high. But the MEA was around 7,000. Also, the AeroSun LEDs flashing out of both wings probably helped. I now leave them on whenever I fly, night, day, snow, rain.
 
Greg,
I have encountered a flock of 30 or so geese at 12,500 MSL before. What was equally interesting with that encounter was that it happened with about 30 minutes of daylight left. We were traveling SW. They were traveling pretty much due east. I still wonder how long it would have taken them to descend and settle in for the night with what little daylight was left.
 
I have encountered a flock of 30 or so geese at 12,500 MSL before.
You could have been Sully! I had no idea that geese flew that high, although I have an acquaintance who hit some kind of bird at 10,000' at night. He didn't see anything but just heard a large BANG! at the bird hit his wing root.
 
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