V

vic syracuse

Well Known Member
I had an interesting encounter yesterday that I have never seen in over 31 years of flying. I flew back from Omaha to Atlanta by way of Little Rock to get around the weather, primarily icing, so I spent the entire day on top of a solid overcast. I was at 9K' from Council Bluffs in Omaha to Little Rock, and then at 11K' from Little Rock into Omaha. Nice tail winds all the way. I even saw ground speeds of 208 knots. The cloud layer was only about 1500' thick, with some light mixed icing, but I got through it rather quickly. It's for times like these that I am glad I have a check valve for the right tank in the cockpit to allow it to suck air if the vent gets blocked. Even though the icing was light, I noticed it took quite a while for the ice to sublimate off of the top comm antenna. OAT's at altitude were 10F. For those that are curious, the heater worked wonderfully, I didn't even have it on full, and the oil temp stayed at 175 with the shutter closed.
But here's something I've never seen before. I had just left Little Rock, and was about 15 minutes East. I had climbed through a solid overcast, was level at 9K' feet. I started to look down to change some VOR frequencies (I like to keep track of cross track radials, more for something to do) and something caught my eye. It was over before I could react, but I almost had a midair with a flock of Sand Hill cranes! There were about 20-30 of them, traveling North to South. I'm guessing they were in their usually nice V at one time, but as I went through them they scattered in all directions. It's very interesting to me that they were so high, and also on top of a very large area of solid undercast. I never saw any peaks of the ground until near the Alabama/Georgia border.
Yes, I gave a pirep, and I assume they weren't squawking. :)

Vic
 
Glad you...

didn't do like our Falcon RV Squadron mate who managed to 'avoid' a bird right into his FAB airbox!
 
I've seen a few birds (ducks) above layers. Passed a single little black bird heading East at about 9000' agl over a cloudy Texas coast once. He seemed like he knew where he was going!

I've noticed quite a few large "migratory" birds out there this and last weekend. Guess it's that time of year.
 
I hear geese flying IFR on top all the time above the Oregon fog layer...they actually are squawking a code...you can hear them from the ground.
 
The Sandhills have often been reported above 10,000!

It is that time of year, so be careful out there!
 
Yesterday I flew south to Pueblo CO (KPUB) for breakfast. A group of three Cozys were also headed there and were a few miles north of me. I was cleared to land on 26L when the controller advised the Cozys of a flock of migratory fowl heading north.

Lo and behold as I am on final I see the birds over the approach end of the runway heading EAST at my altitude. They separated into two groups around me so I did not have to take evasive action but it was close.

Lots of geese (guess) seen up at Greeley this morning.
 
birds

I have had close encounters with geese before and could actually see them turn their heads and look at me as I went by. I have seen them speed up their flapping as if they were going to try to out run me and then fold their wings in and spit S out of the way. Birds are amazing flyers.

C Murphy
 
We happen to live right underneath the migratory routes of the Sandhill cranes, and for a number of years I would actually fly right in formation in them in my Kitfox. I have some really cool pictures. I found that if I came in from high and above I was able to actually join on the outer tip of the V and stay right with them without them scattering. They flew right about 40 mph and were usually at 3000'-3500'. This trip I mentioned to start this thread was the first time I had seen them above the clouds.
The first time I ever saw them I was flying around and thought I was halucinating, as from far off they looked like huge bomber formations from WWII. Of course I was Walter Mitty and prepared for fighter escort duty! :)On some days multiple large formations would come over. Really a sight to see.
Vic
 
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