MSFT-1

MSFT-1

Well Known Member
Over the last few months I have been using my airplane to commute on a regular basis. This means it sits outside a whole lot more than it used to. One of the bigger problems is birds sitting on it (mostly on the vertical stab) and cr*pping all over the place.

I have seen other airplanes with fake owls on them to scare other birds away. Do they work? Anyone have any actual experience with preventing birds from cr*pping all over your airplane?

thanks,
 
Sorry, no answer to your question, but it reminds me of a comic I read the other day:

bird%20comic.JPG
 
I used to use

a rubber snake. It worked pretty good, but you need to move it around as often as you can or the birds get used to it and ignore it.
Good luck.
 
Get a piece of foam tubing (like you used to find to protect your groin on a bicycle frame) and make a slit down one side so that it can hug the upper edge of the stab. Push tooth picks through and glue them in place. I made one of these to keep birds off my bosses old 58 Baron. Worked wonders, and if I was going to be there for a few days I'd just tape it down with some blue painters tape that wouldn't pull the paint up.

There are probably a bunch of people here that can come up with a better engineered product than me, but it worked like a charm.
 
Fake owls? I have seen them used numerous times - and usually they are covered in bird poop.....:)
 
The owl idea is flawed....

Owls are nocturnal and most pooping birds are out during daylight hours. Thus, I understand, the owl figures don't work as they are predators of the birds that concern you. Perhaps a hawk or eagle would do better. But, it sounds like you've been given a better idea.
 
I saw recent article where an owl was used on a Bonanza with a scarf around neck to blow in the breeze.
 
Owls are frequently used on our flat roof tops out here in the desert southwest. Those roofs that have them seem to require less bird repair than those that don't.

We have the ocassional robins & sparrows and lot's large ravens, hawks, etc. so it seems to cover a cross section of birds.

Bob
 
Sig600 said:
Get a piece of foam tubing (like you used to find to protect your groin on a bicycle frame) and make a slit down one side so that it can hug the upper edge of the stab. Push tooth picks through and glue them in place. I made one of these to keep birds off my bosses old 58 Baron. Worked wonders, and if I was going to be there for a few days I'd just tape it down with some blue painters tape that wouldn't pull the paint up.

There are probably a bunch of people here that can come up with a better engineered product than me, but it worked like a charm.
Click to expand...

That should work. There's a bridge I walk under on my way home from work and the light fixtures have a steel mesh on top with metal spines sticking up. No bird poop there.

Cheers.
 
I use a rubber snake on the floor of the cockpit to keep mice out of the plane. It's worked very well for about fifteen years now.

That little guy has earned his way, for sure. Doesn't eat much, either.

Can't help with birds, sorry. But this works great for mice.
 
The toothpick/pin cushion approach ..

.... is actually a homemade substitute for a commercially available product called Nixilite (sp?) It looks a little like a silver Christmas tree garland, but with spikes. During my career in facilities, we used it to try to to keep pigeons from roosting on window sills. About half the time, the pigeons figured out it provided perfect grip for nesting material. Then even the ugliest storms wouldn't blow their nests away! :eek:
 
They use foil strips on the grape vines to keep birds away. Birds don't like flashing things around where they want to land.
 
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