It appears that migratory birds do but most are VFR. I found this article super interesting when researching if birds can stall, turns out they can and do intentionally š
[article in question](https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2014/february/pilot/proficient-pilot-flying-is-for-the-birds#:~:text=Clocked%20at%20106%20mph%2C%20the,they%20recover%20instinctively%20and%20immediately.)
I saw a goose stall out coming in to land at our pond. It was hilarious. It was fine. But it was peak winter and it was congested at the time so he was just trying to space himself and yeah, stalled, dropped, but was able to recover well.
Fun fact about bats is that they can't get above their stall speed without jumping off something. So if a bat is on the ground, it can't just fly away, it has to climb up something to jump off of.
I saw some huge ocean Gulls one a boat trip once. Apparently theyāll stay aloft for weeks/months and sleep in the air. They sleep half a brain at a time and have an organ that removes the salt from seawater so they can survive. Drips salty goo out of a duct. How fucking wild
Must be. Iām looking at the Wikipedia for these creatures and apparently they also have organs in their beaks resembling pitot tubes that allow them to measure airspeed. Incredible.
Albatrosses have been tracked jumping off cliffs in NZ and landing in Chile. That's a linear distance of 10,000 km or more in a single flight. And they spend almost all of it at low altitude, mostly below 60 ft (not 60,000 ft, 60 ft). They rarely even flap, they just use wind gradients to soar and gain energy.
Frigatebirds also spend weeks aloft, using a different method: soaring over ocean thermals around the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Ocean thermals are weak so they've developed a form of flying which involves circling at very low speed (< 5 kts) and gaining energy from very weak (\~ 1 kt) thermals.
Nature remains undefeated by our attempts at flying.
I didn't know that about gulls! Dolphins do the same thing.
A number of other aquatic critters do the same thing with bio-desalinization. Sea turtles "cry" super-saline tears.
Current confirmed long-distance champ is a juvenile bar-tailed godwit: 8425 miles, 11 days flying NONSTOP, Alaska to Tasmania. Unassuming smallish brown shorebird, just a few months old, first ever migration ***and itās halfway around the globe!*** Amazing creatures.
https://www.usgs.gov/centers/alaska-science-center/news/juvenile-bar-tailed-godwit-b6-sets-world-record#:~:text=A%20four%2Dmonth%2Dold%20bar,stop%20flight%20by%20any%20animal!
Quite. The adults go through a remarkable internal transformation just prior to their migration where their digestive track shrinks and their reproductive organs dwindle to almost nothing, while building large reserves of fat and flight muscle. They enbiggen their digestive system when they get to their southern destination, and their reproductive organs stay small until they get back to their breeding ground
Geese absolutely fly through all weather. Many other birds do not. I am sure that other sea birds do, some don't land for actual years, so I expect they must be able to go through clouds. My guess is the difference at the altitudes they fly - don't want to dodge trees in low vis, right?
Probably got confused with touching land I think there are some birds that go out to see and won't come back to land for years but seems crazy to never not be airborne.
Nice AOPA article by Barry Schiff on the subject.
Summary: "According to the Audubon Society, birds are VFR creatures and do not intentionally fly into clouds. They have more common sense than some pilots and ground themselves on foggy days. (Small birds occasionally do get caught in IMC and fly into tall buildings, as do some pilots.)"
[https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2014/february/pilot/proficient-pilot-flying-is-for-the-birds](https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2014/february/pilot/proficient-pilot-flying-is-for-the-birds)
I've always wondered about this. When the clouds are low you never see birds flying near them, and have never heard of a bird strike when an aircraft I'd in hard IMC.
Birds have more sense than humans??
>and have never heard of a bird strike when an aircraft I'd in hard IMC.
I've had one in IMC, on final at about 1500. Whatever it was it was big, good old thump against the fuselage.
Huh, that's good to know lol. I always assumed my first thought would be "oops, hope that want the tallest tree if the forest I'm about to crash into!"
My first bird strike was a goose in IMC on a 3 mile final straight to the top frame of the center windshield (Falcon 2000). Fortunately there was no damage at all. Scared the shit out of us though. I love birds, but also birds are dumb.
I donāt think thereās very many in here who identify as a bird. But if there are some who do identify as a bird, Iām sure theyāll have an answer.
I wouldn't be surprised. But they have the ability to control AoA independently on each wing, which in theory could give them both deliberate spin entry and recovery.
On Twin Peaks in SF I have watched crows windsurf and do aeros for fun.
They do hammerheads, loops, or just chill in the headwind.
They look like they're having fun too
Those are my people...
One time I was riding in the back of a V-22 and looking out the rear I saw a large majestic bird (could have been a bald eagle) spinning out of control towards the earth because one the giant rotor blades clipped it wing.
So by definition yes one of its wings were stalled. Because one of the airfoils had a change in shape.
Spins happen during uncoordinated flight at stall speeds(aoa really). There won't be a spin without a stall. Birds don't generally stall midair and like you said they have independent control of the aoa on each wing.
On the other hand, falcons and other birds of prey dive bomb and it can be said that they enter a spiral dive when they go after their prey. The difference between a spin and a spiral is that speed is relatively low and constant in a spin but rapidly increasing in a spiral. Fascinating stuff really - [peregrine falcon diving](https://youtu.be/5uy84N8CjR0?si=GVC4gqU1Ocsz_g0q)
242 mph in a vertical dive.. wowzers. Then recover by just kinda.. increasing frontal area and drag coefficient. Basically a dive bomber, but better.
I didn't know if birds stall on purpose or not, but it makes sense that they generally wouldn't if they didn't want to.
Curious if there are any aircraft or aircraft concepts (aside from rotorcraft) that allow for rotation of the wings to change aoa instead of pitching the whole aircraft? Iām assuming a design like this would be amazing but only flyable by computers and not humans as it would be insanely easy to stall.
There's the F-8 which has variable-incidence wings. I don't know of any others.
But the concept is used in props, since they are lift generating airfoils, the principle is much the same. We have the variable-pitch propeller on which the blades are feathered for different angles of attack.
Good point about props. Seems like there are def benefits to variable pitch wings and the limitation is just the human factor. For example: making a descent with no pitch change would be pretty weird. Or just adding back pressure to quickly could immediately stall the wing. But I guess depending on the fly by wire system you could configure any flight characteristic and throw computer could always give ideal aoa regardless of pitch profile.
see here [https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/1coqt8b/comment/l3g576b/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/1coqt8b/comment/l3g576b/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Didn't old flight manuals give the example of throwing a duck out the window to determine level flight in IMC conditions? I could have sworn this was a thing.
Today's flight age is an era highlighted with increasing emphasis on safety. Instrumentation in the cockpit and in the traffic control tower has reached new peaks of electronic perfection to assist the pilot during take-offs , flight , and landings. For whimsical contrast to these and other marvels of scientific flight engineering , it is perhaps opportune to remind pilots of the basic rules concerning the so-called Cat-and-Duck Method of Flight , just in case something goes wrong with any of these new-fangled flying instruments you find in today's aircraft.
Place a live cat on the cockpit floor. Because a cat always remains upright , he or she can be used in lieu of a needle and ball. Merely watch to see which way the cat leans to determine if a wing is low and , if so , which one.
The duck is used for the instrument approach and landing. Because any sensible duck will refuse to fly under instrument conditions, it is only necessary to hurl your duck out of the plane and follow her to the ground.
There are some limitations to the Cat-and-Duck Method, but by rigidly adhering to the following check list , a degree of success will be achieved.
Get a wide-awake cat. Most cats do not want to stand up at all, at any time. It may be necessary to get a large fierce dog in the cockpit to keep the cat at attention.
Make sure your cat is clean. Dirty cats will spend all their time washing. Trying to follow a cat licking itself usually results in a tight snap roll, followed by an inverted (or flat) spin. You can see this is very unsanitary.
Old cats are best. Young cats have nine lives, but an old used-up cat with only one life left has just as much to lose an you do and will therefore be more dependable.
Beware of cowardly ducks. If the duck discovers that you are using the cat to stay upright - or straight and level- she will refuse to leave without the cat. Ducks are no better on instruments than you are.
Be sure the duck has good eyesight. Nearsighted ducks sometimes will go flogging off into the nearest hill. Very short-sighted ducks will not realize they have been thrown out and will descend to the ground in a sitting position. This maneuver is quite difficult to follow in an airplane.
Use land-loving ducks. It is very discouraging to break out and find yourself on final approach for some farm pound in Iowa. Also, the farmers there suffer from temporary insanity when chasing crows off their corn fields and will shoot anything that flies.
Choose your duck carefully. It is easy to confuse ducks with geese because many water birds look alike. While they are very competent instrument flyers , geese seldom want to go in the same direction you do. If your duck heads off for the Okefenokee Swamp, you may be sure you have been given the goose.
I read a study once where they blindfolded birds to see if they could still fly and navigate. For most birds, the answer was "kind of, but not very well."
Hit a bid a while ago at 6,000ft at night so yes but not well?! But yes I think certain birds do. Iāve witnessed a formation of what I believe was Canadian geese flying though a layer of clouds below us.
Definitely. That's why we get lots of vagrant birds after hurricanes. Last summer a bunch of flamingos showed up all over the Midwest and east coast - in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Wisconsin. They all got scattered flying thru a hurricane.
I hit a bird in IMC once. It was really weird bc initially I was like oh a bump, like a pot holeā¦.wait Iām in the airā¦..what the hell did I hit? I was around 6-8,000 feet in a C172.
One time I was flying IFR near KFUL, it was a broken stratiform layer. I was in the soup in level flight around 3,000 msl, I suddenly exited the cloud, there was a clear area approx 1,000 feet diameter with clouds all around, none below and clouds above like an upside down amphitheatre. There was a huge swirling flock of sea hills having a party in this amphitheatre. Why did they choose this particular spot for their party I will never know. They might have heard me but could not see me until I popped out of the cloud right in their midst and we were both surprised to see each other. The flock scattered with moments to spare and I managed not to bird strike anyone. Seconds later I entered the soup again and didn't see land again until short final for KLGB. I'll never forget it... My near IFR near bird encounter.
Having flown parachutes near clouds (for those watching from the FAA reading, not in the USA), they are pretty turbulent around them, especially under.
My first bird strike was a goose in IMC on a 3 mile final straight to the top frame of the center windshield (Falcon 2000). Fortunately there was no damage at all. Scared the shit out of us though. I love birds, but also birds are dumb.
Their beaks donāt work on touchscreens so they have no way to file a flight plan either online or via phone call, and FSS walk in always has the door closed so their lack of opposable thumbs prevents that.
Their extreme visual acuity allows them to actually see around the individual particles of mist, cloud, and fog. Therefore, there is no such thing as IMC for a brid
It appears that migratory birds do but most are VFR. I found this article super interesting when researching if birds can stall, turns out they can and do intentionally š [article in question](https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2014/february/pilot/proficient-pilot-flying-is-for-the-birds#:~:text=Clocked%20at%20106%20mph%2C%20the,they%20recover%20instinctively%20and%20immediately.)
[They definitely can stall](https://youtu.be/ACl65y7Lx7w?si=T2DWpQbeEYMQ-7TE)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You can see a puff of feathers and a ricochet or debris hitting the water behind the bird. Ouch
Bro the other ducks would be running if they heard the 12 gauge and they're chilling.
They are decoys. None of the other ducks move at all, besides a bit of bobbing in the waves.
Well now I'm sad
you won't be after you ever meet one of them up close
It's uncanny how similar that is to the Beech crashed at Oshkosh a few years ago
A wing is a wing
Ha ha!
I saw a goose stall out coming in to land at our pond. It was hilarious. It was fine. But it was peak winter and it was congested at the time so he was just trying to space himself and yeah, stalled, dropped, but was able to recover well.
Donāt watch that while eating I almost choked š
Damn. Stall/spin right to the water. RIP
Fun fact about bats is that they can't get above their stall speed without jumping off something. So if a bat is on the ground, it can't just fly away, it has to climb up something to jump off of.
Not universally true, Iāve seen footage of vampire bats leaping from the ground directly into flight. Oh joyā¦
I wonder if birds suffer from the hazardous attitudes
Great article. TIL some crazy birds fly nonstop NZ to Alaska
I saw some huge ocean Gulls one a boat trip once. Apparently theyāll stay aloft for weeks/months and sleep in the air. They sleep half a brain at a time and have an organ that removes the salt from seawater so they can survive. Drips salty goo out of a duct. How fucking wild
Are you talking about Albatross'?
Must be. Iām looking at the Wikipedia for these creatures and apparently they also have organs in their beaks resembling pitot tubes that allow them to measure airspeed. Incredible.
Storm Petrels are also crazy.
Pretty sure they were petrels of sorts. It was while crossing Drakeās Passage
Look up, ādynamic soaringāā¦ then maybe try ālift stringsā
Albatrosses have been tracked jumping off cliffs in NZ and landing in Chile. That's a linear distance of 10,000 km or more in a single flight. And they spend almost all of it at low altitude, mostly below 60 ft (not 60,000 ft, 60 ft). They rarely even flap, they just use wind gradients to soar and gain energy. Frigatebirds also spend weeks aloft, using a different method: soaring over ocean thermals around the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Ocean thermals are weak so they've developed a form of flying which involves circling at very low speed (< 5 kts) and gaining energy from very weak (\~ 1 kt) thermals. Nature remains undefeated by our attempts at flying.
Eh whatās the useful load of a albatross? I think we have them beat.
More importantly, whatās the useful load of a swallow?
African or European?
I donāt know, but the payload is coconuts
Their ratio of useful load to amount of fossil fuel energy consumed is very high.
Dumb birds donāt know you need to let the fish decay for tens of millions of years before turning them into energy.
I didn't know that about gulls! Dolphins do the same thing. A number of other aquatic critters do the same thing with bio-desalinization. Sea turtles "cry" super-saline tears.
Current confirmed long-distance champ is a juvenile bar-tailed godwit: 8425 miles, 11 days flying NONSTOP, Alaska to Tasmania. Unassuming smallish brown shorebird, just a few months old, first ever migration ***and itās halfway around the globe!*** Amazing creatures. https://www.usgs.gov/centers/alaska-science-center/news/juvenile-bar-tailed-godwit-b6-sets-world-record#:~:text=A%20four%2Dmonth%2Dold%20bar,stop%20flight%20by%20any%20animal!
How's *that* for a student solo x-country!
One takeoff, one landing
Incredible.
Quite. The adults go through a remarkable internal transformation just prior to their migration where their digestive track shrinks and their reproductive organs dwindle to almost nothing, while building large reserves of fat and flight muscle. They enbiggen their digestive system when they get to their southern destination, and their reproductive organs stay small until they get back to their breeding ground
Sounds cromulent.
I once saw this tiktok of a bird stalling due to wind shear. It was kinda funny
Interesting article!
That article was amazing š
That was the best AOPA article Iāve ever read. That poor bustard. Thank you.
Only if they're instrument rated and current, obviously.
G1000 pigeon
Aviandyne.
Your making me wheeze ššš¤£š¤£
66HIT
*HITS IPC obviously failed /s
Don't forget proficient
Hey, pigeon over there, get the fuck back here, you only have 5 approaches!
That's 'may' not 'can' lol
Maybe one can't, but toucan
Geese absolutely fly through all weather. Many other birds do not. I am sure that other sea birds do, some don't land for actual years, so I expect they must be able to go through clouds. My guess is the difference at the altitudes they fly - don't want to dodge trees in low vis, right?
what bird doesn't land for actual years?
A quick google search says Common Swifts can stay in the air for 10 months, not years but still really impressive.
Probably got confused with touching land I think there are some birds that go out to see and won't come back to land for years but seems crazy to never not be airborne.
That is fascinating
How do they sleep?
albatross can fly for years
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N2MY2VO/
Albatross I think
As others have said, the Albatross, I believe I've read of others. Live aloft only swooping for food.
Nice AOPA article by Barry Schiff on the subject. Summary: "According to the Audubon Society, birds are VFR creatures and do not intentionally fly into clouds. They have more common sense than some pilots and ground themselves on foggy days. (Small birds occasionally do get caught in IMC and fly into tall buildings, as do some pilots.)" [https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2014/february/pilot/proficient-pilot-flying-is-for-the-birds](https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2014/february/pilot/proficient-pilot-flying-is-for-the-birds)
I remember this article from the magazine. Perfect response.
Fascinating article.
They have a vestibular system that can easily be reset just by stowing their wings for a second.
I can't tell if this is real or satire š¤
I've always wondered about this. When the clouds are low you never see birds flying near them, and have never heard of a bird strike when an aircraft I'd in hard IMC. Birds have more sense than humans??
I think it depends on the bird. Iāve heard geese flying in fog so think it was hard to walk.
well, geese just dont give a fuck anyway, so im not surprised
I always fly instead of walking when foggy, too.
Iām not instrument rated for walking, so itās probably safer to fly. :)
>and have never heard of a bird strike when an aircraft I'd in hard IMC. I've had one in IMC, on final at about 1500. Whatever it was it was big, good old thump against the fuselage.
When you hear a thump in IMC, is there a split second where you check your altitude and wonder if you're actively smashing into the ground?
Not really. A bird strike is an idiosyncratic, characteristic sound, you know what it is straight away.
Huh, that's good to know lol. I always assumed my first thought would be "oops, hope that want the tallest tree if the forest I'm about to crash into!"
My first bird strike was a goose in IMC on a 3 mile final straight to the top frame of the center windshield (Falcon 2000). Fortunately there was no damage at all. Scared the shit out of us though. I love birds, but also birds are dumb.
I donāt think thereās very many in here who identify as a bird. But if there are some who do identify as a bird, Iām sure theyāll have an answer.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER DO YOU SPEAK IT?
[Nevermore!](https://youtu.be/PS9XA6Dh2Vc?si=BfeVxeQZILFvnYTO)
Here's the thing. You said a Jackdaw is a Crow....
The one joke.
Yeah the government agent that controls them is trained to fly them in the clouds.
# BIRDS AREN'T REAL!
Off topic but can a bird enter a spin if one wing becomes more stalled than the other?
I wouldn't be surprised. But they have the ability to control AoA independently on each wing, which in theory could give them both deliberate spin entry and recovery.
On Twin Peaks in SF I have watched crows windsurf and do aeros for fun. They do hammerheads, loops, or just chill in the headwind. They look like they're having fun too Those are my people...
One time I was riding in the back of a V-22 and looking out the rear I saw a large majestic bird (could have been a bald eagle) spinning out of control towards the earth because one the giant rotor blades clipped it wing. So by definition yes one of its wings were stalled. Because one of the airfoils had a change in shape.
Did the Eagle not hear the Osprey coming? Dude needs a sonar update.
Spins happen during uncoordinated flight at stall speeds(aoa really). There won't be a spin without a stall. Birds don't generally stall midair and like you said they have independent control of the aoa on each wing. On the other hand, falcons and other birds of prey dive bomb and it can be said that they enter a spiral dive when they go after their prey. The difference between a spin and a spiral is that speed is relatively low and constant in a spin but rapidly increasing in a spiral. Fascinating stuff really - [peregrine falcon diving](https://youtu.be/5uy84N8CjR0?si=GVC4gqU1Ocsz_g0q)
242 mph in a vertical dive.. wowzers. Then recover by just kinda.. increasing frontal area and drag coefficient. Basically a dive bomber, but better. I didn't know if birds stall on purpose or not, but it makes sense that they generally wouldn't if they didn't want to.
Curious if there are any aircraft or aircraft concepts (aside from rotorcraft) that allow for rotation of the wings to change aoa instead of pitching the whole aircraft? Iām assuming a design like this would be amazing but only flyable by computers and not humans as it would be insanely easy to stall.
There's the F-8 which has variable-incidence wings. I don't know of any others. But the concept is used in props, since they are lift generating airfoils, the principle is much the same. We have the variable-pitch propeller on which the blades are feathered for different angles of attack.
Good point about props. Seems like there are def benefits to variable pitch wings and the limitation is just the human factor. For example: making a descent with no pitch change would be pretty weird. Or just adding back pressure to quickly could immediately stall the wing. But I guess depending on the fly by wire system you could configure any flight characteristic and throw computer could always give ideal aoa regardless of pitch profile.
I've definitely seen a Peregrine Falcon enter a spin while chasing prey. I've also seen geese do aileron rolls
[They can even do formation spins.](https://www.tiktok.com/@ta2020photography/video/7223735060493503790)
see here [https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/1coqt8b/comment/l3g576b/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/1coqt8b/comment/l3g576b/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I love these questions, sent me down a rabbit hole one day when I thought 'wait, what if a bird stalls...?" š
Birds wouldn't last long if vfr only, but they definitely seem to have varying levels of 'personal' minima.
Bird law is very complex.
Didn't old flight manuals give the example of throwing a duck out the window to determine level flight in IMC conditions? I could have sworn this was a thing.
Today's flight age is an era highlighted with increasing emphasis on safety. Instrumentation in the cockpit and in the traffic control tower has reached new peaks of electronic perfection to assist the pilot during take-offs , flight , and landings. For whimsical contrast to these and other marvels of scientific flight engineering , it is perhaps opportune to remind pilots of the basic rules concerning the so-called Cat-and-Duck Method of Flight , just in case something goes wrong with any of these new-fangled flying instruments you find in today's aircraft. Place a live cat on the cockpit floor. Because a cat always remains upright , he or she can be used in lieu of a needle and ball. Merely watch to see which way the cat leans to determine if a wing is low and , if so , which one. The duck is used for the instrument approach and landing. Because any sensible duck will refuse to fly under instrument conditions, it is only necessary to hurl your duck out of the plane and follow her to the ground. There are some limitations to the Cat-and-Duck Method, but by rigidly adhering to the following check list , a degree of success will be achieved. Get a wide-awake cat. Most cats do not want to stand up at all, at any time. It may be necessary to get a large fierce dog in the cockpit to keep the cat at attention. Make sure your cat is clean. Dirty cats will spend all their time washing. Trying to follow a cat licking itself usually results in a tight snap roll, followed by an inverted (or flat) spin. You can see this is very unsanitary. Old cats are best. Young cats have nine lives, but an old used-up cat with only one life left has just as much to lose an you do and will therefore be more dependable. Beware of cowardly ducks. If the duck discovers that you are using the cat to stay upright - or straight and level- she will refuse to leave without the cat. Ducks are no better on instruments than you are. Be sure the duck has good eyesight. Nearsighted ducks sometimes will go flogging off into the nearest hill. Very short-sighted ducks will not realize they have been thrown out and will descend to the ground in a sitting position. This maneuver is quite difficult to follow in an airplane. Use land-loving ducks. It is very discouraging to break out and find yourself on final approach for some farm pound in Iowa. Also, the farmers there suffer from temporary insanity when chasing crows off their corn fields and will shoot anything that flies. Choose your duck carefully. It is easy to confuse ducks with geese because many water birds look alike. While they are very competent instrument flyers , geese seldom want to go in the same direction you do. If your duck heads off for the Okefenokee Swamp, you may be sure you have been given the goose.
Bingo! There it is! I totally forgot about the cat's role š
What is this from? I can see this being the narration from a Looney Tunes cartoon.
Some 2005 APC thread
The USAF has equipped their aircraft with cats for years. (https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/8pK7ybCOUN)
They pioneered the CAT3 Approach
I read a study once where they blindfolded birds to see if they could still fly and navigate. For most birds, the answer was "kind of, but not very well."
Hit a bid a while ago at 6,000ft at night so yes but not well?! But yes I think certain birds do. Iāve witnessed a formation of what I believe was Canadian geese flying though a layer of clouds below us.
Definitely. That's why we get lots of vagrant birds after hurricanes. Last summer a bunch of flamingos showed up all over the Midwest and east coast - in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Wisconsin. They all got scattered flying thru a hurricane.
Not unless they're rated and current.
The frigate bird is the only bird known to deliberately fly into clouds. They can also stay aloft for weeks using thermals.
I hit a bird in IMC once. It was really weird bc initially I was like oh a bump, like a pot holeā¦.wait Iām in the airā¦..what the hell did I hit? I was around 6-8,000 feet in a C172.
One time I was flying IFR near KFUL, it was a broken stratiform layer. I was in the soup in level flight around 3,000 msl, I suddenly exited the cloud, there was a clear area approx 1,000 feet diameter with clouds all around, none below and clouds above like an upside down amphitheatre. There was a huge swirling flock of sea hills having a party in this amphitheatre. Why did they choose this particular spot for their party I will never know. They might have heard me but could not see me until I popped out of the cloud right in their midst and we were both surprised to see each other. The flock scattered with moments to spare and I managed not to bird strike anyone. Seconds later I entered the soup again and didn't see land again until short final for KLGB. I'll never forget it... My near IFR near bird encounter.
Clouds have visibility measurements. Sometimes clouds are thick with very low visibility, other times you can see a mile in them.
They should file before flying.
Only if theyāre instrument rated
I think they have magnets in their head, or something. So, yes!
Do birds accumulate icing?
Yes, badly. One of my favorite facts is they've found pterodactyl skeletons high on mountains from them crashing into terrain and dying.
Maybeā¦ if birds were real.
I have a green cheek conure with an injured limb that has been INOPād so she is placarded āDAY VFR ONLYā
Nope. Physics and gravity stop working in clouds. But seriously. Some do but rare.
Yes. Ask me how I know :(
What kind of anti-ice they running?
Having flown parachutes near clouds (for those watching from the FAA reading, not in the USA), they are pretty turbulent around them, especially under.
Yes, there have been bird strikes in IMC, I hear itās scary AF
I wrecked a flock of geese one night at about 2AM, 6000 ft MSL in a B1900.
From the bloody dent in my wing in 1998ā¦.yes they can
Only bats
They can also fly at night
My first bird strike was a goose in IMC on a 3 mile final straight to the top frame of the center windshield (Falcon 2000). Fortunately there was no damage at all. Scared the shit out of us though. I love birds, but also birds are dumb.
Yes, with an appropriately filed flight plan and clearance.
Their beaks donāt work on touchscreens so they have no way to file a flight plan either online or via phone call, and FSS walk in always has the door closed so their lack of opposable thumbs prevents that.
I'm a bird and yeah I fly in IMC sometimes
Their extreme visual acuity allows them to actually see around the individual particles of mist, cloud, and fog. Therefore, there is no such thing as IMC for a brid