Circle with Falcons?

At 19:54 19 February 2007, Andy wrote:
On Feb 19, 1:48 am, Sally W
wrote:
and some fantastic footage of one following down the
presenter who had made a tandem parachute jump from
a balloon - at 150mph or more

I'd be amazed by that too. Did they forget to deploy
the drogue
chute?


No, two people jumping in tandem have a higher terminal
velocity than one on their own though I might have
the wrong speed. The instructor most certainly *did*
pull the rip-cord - this was not a static line jump
and they did land safely!

On Feb 19, 3:28 pm, Sally W
wrote:
At 19:54 19 February 2007, Andy wrote:

On Feb 19, 1:48 am, Sally W
wrote:
and some fantastic footage of one following down the
presenter who had made a tandem parachute jump from
a balloon - at 150mph or more

I'd be amazed by that too. Did they forget to deploy
the drogue
chute?

No, two people jumping in tandem have a higher terminal
velocity than one on their own though I might have
the wrong speed. The instructor most certainly *did*
pull the rip-cord - this was not a static line jump
and they did land safely!

Two in tandem would fall faster than one.That's why a tandem has a
drogue that's deployed immediately after leaving the airplane. I
imagine the drogue deploy could be delayed from a balloon but I never
jumped balloons (yet). With the drogue out a tandem has a similar fall
speed to a solo jumper. Approx 115mph I think.

Anyway, I didn't mean to detract from the story. Jumping with a
trained Hawk would be quite a thrill!

Andy

At 00:24 20 February 2007, Tuno wrote:
183 mph for this falcon, which chases a skydiver:

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/a...con_peregrine_
velocity.html


At the end of that wonderful clip, they say she (the
falcon) was clocked a week later at 242mph! Dunno
if female falcons are faster than males - they are
certainly larger. What a trace that must be! Thanks
for posting the URL, it was well worth gritting my
teeth through the advert at the beginning.

On Feb 18, 9:19 pm, wrote:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/raptorforce/video.html

couple pretty awesome clips of Falcons diving to catch prey. One shot
is from a mini camera mounted on its back. pretty amazing.

I had a humorous encounter with a falcon while flying my hang glider
south of San Francisco along the ocean. While working a ridge at abut
800 feet AGL I had a falcon below and out in front of the ridge that
was hovering in the lift and screeching at every other bird that flew
buy. This section of the coast has a fairly constant stream of
seagulls and pelicans that pass through. I slowly flew up behind the
falcon and when I was directly behind it rotated its head 180 degrees
and laid it along its back. It looked directly at me raised one talon.
I got the message, backed off and want on my way. The falcon kept on
screeching at every thing that passed through.

Rodger R

Pescadero , CA