Playing Chicken With The Birds

On Tuesday, November 20, 2018 at 5:07:44 AM UTC-8, wrote:
Hi, everyone.

Here in Miami, we have a lot of turkey buzzards. They are VERY good at finding, centering and re-centering thermals. When the lift allows, they will soar (without flapping wings) all the way up into cumulus clouds with 3-4 thousand foot bases.

Because they are so good at the re-centering, I usually soar with them in the same thermal. I try to stay just outside their circle radius so as to (1) not scare them off the thermal and (2) not hit them.

These buzzards are big - almost the size of a turkey and there are often a dozen of them in any given thermal. If we collide it's going to hurt - possibly me, but the glider and the buzzard for sure.

I don't recall reading much in my various glidering books about how to safely soar near the birds, so I'm hoping to find some good advice here.

For example, if I see that I'm on a collision course with a bird and getting close, should I try to turn or dive or climb quickly to avoid it? or should I maintain course or turn away slowly, so as to not confuse the bird regarding my intent?

In short, how does one avoid "playing chicken" with the the birds. :-)

I had an impact with a hawk and my LS-8. Thermalling outside of San Diego airspace keenly looking for airline traffic I heard a bang. The glider shook and vibrated in a way never experienced before. Immediately I knew there was a mid-air, looked out to the right then left wing. Stuck about 10 feet out on the left wing was a hawk stuck to the leading edge. To this day I remember its eye looking back at me. I tried yawing, then a stall trying to get it off my wing. Nothing worked. The next step was setting a final glide back to Warner Spring to get the bird off. I remember dialing in final glide and wondering how many bugs is a hawk worth? About ten minutes later it fell off the LS-8. After landing and cleaning up I noticed a small dent underneath the wing.

Here is the takeaway. The potential for damage is real. Coincidentally AOPA ran an article the next month about how inexperienced birds in the spring have a higher occurrence of mid-air collisions. Exercise greater caution with newer birds learning how to fly.