Are birds IFR?

Thanks for the great article. So the 'scientific' answer is yes, the
interpretation is 'but they don't like it'.

Of course, you'd never know if a bird was in the soup with you.

KC

A Lieberma wrote:
Kevin Clarke wrote in news:mZfRg.5203$UG4.4955
@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net:

Here's a whacky question.

I just flew my 250NM IFR x-ctry. The last leg was IMC, bouncing along at
5000'. So the question I have is, do birds ever fly in the clouds?

KC

See http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...07/ai_n8801218 for
study on birds flying without visual reference and you be the judge.

Allen

Well, at least not until you heard it... I've never heard of anyone
hitting one in actual precipitation, but they are flying in times of low
ceilings so you can hit one while still in the soup.


-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Clarke ]
Posted At: Sunday, September 24, 2006 8:11 AM
Posted To: rec.aviation.ifr
Conversation: Are birds IFR?
Subject: Are birds IFR?

Thanks for the great article. So the 'scientific' answer is yes, the
interpretation is 'but they don't like it'.

Of course, you'd never know if a bird was in the soup with you.

KC

In a previous article, Kevin Clarke said:
Of course, you'd never know if a bird was in the soup with you.

I heard Mary Schiavo is accusing the FAA of a lax attitude towards air
safety because they haven't equipped all birds with transponders.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
And the Prime Directive would be a valid excuse to do absolutely nothing
all day. "I can't fix $LUSER's problem, because to do so would interfere
with their development/evolution. Sorry." -- James Turinsky

But they'd be naturals.

"Squawk" 4673. :^)

KC

Paul Tomblin wrote:
In a previous article, Kevin Clarke said:
Of course, you'd never know if a bird was in the soup with you.

I heard Mary Schiavo is accusing the FAA of a lax attitude towards air
safety because they haven't equipped all birds with transponders.

Kevin Clarke wrote in news:mZfRg.5203$UG4.4955
@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net:

Here's a whacky question.
snip
So what about it? Are birds IFR equipped? :^)

Does the AAA (Avian Aviation Administration) prohibit birds from flying in
the clouds or low visibility?

My guess is that they don't. In fact, I doubt if the AAA is part of the
ICAO or whether it communicates enough with ICAO members to even be aware
of the flight restrictions placed on all us human pilots...

That said, I would guess that a bird flying into a cloud would suffer some
of the same disorientation that a VFR pilot might. Perhaps the bird might
not have as much issue with the spatial disorientation caused by "seat of
the pants" flying, but I am not fully versed in the biophysics of a bird so
I couldn't say for sure.

But certainly a bird in the clouds would not be able to use Pilotage for
his navigation method. Nor would he be able to identify North without a
good compass, GPS, or VOR receiver. I don't believe birds carry all that
equipment, though, so they would probably have to use dead reckoning.
However, since they don't normally carry this equipment anyway, they may
have to use dead reckoning for much of their navigation, regardless of the
prevailing meteorological conditions.

So the real question is, by what means do birds navigate North in the
summer and South in the winter? The answer to this question may provide
great revelations about the entire AAA air traffic control system.

Nor would he be able to identify North without a
good compass, GPS, or VOR receiver.

I believe birds have built-in compasses.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Mal wrote:
I read an article on the CASA website they did DNA testing to find out what
airplanes were hitting from the remaining remnants on the aircraft.

We often talk about bird strikes they said at night bat strikes were common.

Here in Austin where we have the worlds largest urban bat colony, bat
strikes at night are common. I've never hit an actual bat, but I did
have one drop a large fruit object in order to dodge my prop. After I
put the plane away it looked like total carnage - big squishy red pulp
just above the landing light... Until I realized that it was extra
sticky and sweet. Apparently in that little flash of recognition we
both had through my windscreen, the bat dropped his load (I'm guessing
a fig, probably about 2 inches across) in order to climb.

On 09/25/06 08:52, jmk wrote:
Mal wrote:
I read an article on the CASA website they did DNA testing to find out what
airplanes were hitting from the remaining remnants on the aircraft.

We often talk about bird strikes they said at night bat strikes were common.

Here in Austin where we have the worlds largest urban bat colony, bat
strikes at night are common. I've never hit an actual bat, but I did
have one drop a large fruit object in order to dodge my prop. After I
put the plane away it looked like total carnage - big squishy red pulp
just above the landing light... Until I realized that it was extra
sticky and sweet. Apparently in that little flash of recognition we
both had through my windscreen, the bat dropped his load (I'm guessing
a fig, probably about 2 inches across) in order to climb.

Perhaps he dropped more than one load?
;-)

I've noticed daytime birds are extremely uncomfortable flying at night.

How in the world could you notice that? What makes a bird look
"uncomfortable"?

vince norris

I guess you were disappointed when you tasted it and it wasn't the squished
bat you expected?

Here in Austin where we have the worlds largest urban bat colony, bat
strikes at night are common. I've never hit an actual bat, but I did
have one drop a large fruit object in order to dodge my prop. After I
put the plane away it looked like total carnage - big squishy red pulp
just above the landing light... Until I realized that it was extra
sticky and sweet. Apparently in that little flash of recognition we
both had through my windscreen, the bat dropped his load (I'm guessing
a fig, probably about 2 inches across) in order to climb.