Do birds ever stall?

Jim K

Jim K

Final Approach
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Richard Digits
IMG_20200420_114455265_copy_1836x2448.jpg Going back and forth working ground in preparation for planting, and watching a big crow. When the tractor gets close it takes off and flies a little ways and lands. I find myself watching and contemplating with much more interest now that I've made a few hundred landings myself, none as graceful as Mr. Crow's.

It's fascinating to watch as you can see when he enters ground effect, floats, flares, and touches down. Made me wonder if they ever screw it up and stall. I suppose their feathers are a super sensitive angle of attack indicator, so probably not outside of very gusty winds.

It also occurs to me that I've probably been mistaken all these years, thinking birds generate lift by beating the air down like a helicopter, but watching I'm realizing they are more swimming through the air, generating forward thrust.

Also GPS autosteer is an amazing technology that wouldn't exist without aviation.
 
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they also reconfigure their wing in different phases of flight, to a MUCH larger extent than us adjusting flaps
 
Hope I'm not the only one that had to look at the picture more than a few times to figure out that the crow is in flight from camera right to left. At first I thought it was a bald guy dressed in black praying in the middle of the field.
 
What happens if they go over Vne?? Any flutter???
 
is the bird flying inside a truck that's near weight capacity for the bridge it's on?
 
Timbeck2 said:
Hope I'm not the only one that had to look at the picture more than a few times to figure out that the crow is in flight from camera right to left. At first I thought it was a bald guy dressed in black praying in the middle of the field.
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:rofl:
 
Not sure about stalling, but I once got a good laugh out of a duck attempting a short field water landing with too high an approach speed. Once he hydroplaned across the water and hit the dirt he tumbled about 6 times.
 
Jim K said:
View attachment 84935
Also GPS autosteer is an amazing technology that wouldn't exist without aviation.
Click to expand...

I thought that WAAS is the best correction that's available for GPS for aviation. Precision of about a meter. Is there something better than that, for aviation?

Tractors can use RTK (real-time kinetic) corrections for centimeter precision.

When I was offered a tractor ride, I was impressed that the tire tracks in the dirt were so close to those from the previous day that I could not tell the difference. It might have been better than a centimeter precision. The farmer had his own transmitter, mounted on a fencepost, and that's what made it possible.
 
Tantalum said:
is the bird flying inside a truck that's near weight capacity for the bridge it's on?
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Doesn't matter - weight on the truck stays the same.
Proof: (skip to 4:30 to avoid the blah, blah, blah...) Or, just look at the thumbnail - the scale read 128ish grams before the quad copter lifted off.
 
NoHeat said:
I thought that WAAS is the best correction that's available for GPS for aviation. Precision of about a meter. Is there something better than that, for aviation?

Tractors can use RTK (real-time kinetic) corrections for centimeter precision.

When I was offered a tractor ride, I was impressed that the tire tracks in the dirt were so close to those from the previous day that I could not tell the difference. It might have been better than a centimeter precision. The farmer had his own transmitter, mounted on a fencepost, and that's what made it possible.
Click to expand...
Yep; I run RTK as well. My point being that all this stuff was pioneered in aviation. Well, arguably the military, but the FAA setting up WAAS is what made it really useful.
 
I've seen them do what I assume is a stall....on landing do a vertical drop after basically flaring high on purpose...I think I've seen this most often at the beach or near the water where the birds get a good head wind. Now that I think about it it's probably not a full on stall but a very high rate controlled decent.

The other time I want to say maybe about...is birds essentially doing aerobatics. Birds of prey, sorta tucking their wings in to fall. I've also seen mocking birds harassing larger birds do the same thing.

Some of my favorite bird watching was as a kid and young adult during hunting season...sitting hours leaning against a tree being as still and quiet as I could be. I remember see owls fly full speed through thick forest, more silent that I would ever have imagined.
 
I see lots of sea birds diving for fish and have to belief they stall to make the vertical decent.
 
I have seen birds flying backwards during hurricanes in sofla more than once.
Also, they stall when flying at cruise directly onto the sliding glass door.
 
Pelicans are funny to watch. They pull their wings in enough to reduce lift and dive, but still steer. I’ll have to pay more attention next time I go to a beach.
 
Guess they never have to ponder when to log PIC
 
'merica!

eQYCV.jpg
 
"Seagulls, as you know, never falter, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor."-- Richard Bach
 
Jim K said:
View attachment 84935 Going back and forth working ground in preparation for planting, and watching a big crow. When the tractor gets close it takes off and flies a little ways and lands. I find myself watching and contemplating with much more interest now that I've made a few hundred landings myself, none as graceful as Mr. Crow's.

It's fascinating to watch as you can see when he enters ground effect, floats, flares, and touches down. Made me wonder if they ever screw it up and stall. I suppose their feathers are a super sensitive angle of attack indicator, so probably not outside of very gusty winds.

It also occurs to me that I've probably been mistaken all these years, thinking birds generate lift by beating the air down like a helicopter, but watching I'm realizing they are more swimming through the air, generating forward thrust.

Also GPS autosteer is an amazing technology that wouldn't exist without aviation.
Click to expand...

I am sure that they make mistakes when learning how to fly - and just like us pilots, landing is an acquired skill. I have seen a hilarious video about the Gooney Birds (Laysan Albatross) of Midway Island. Some of their
attempts are truly atrocious (as in head over heels). A quick search did not turn up the video I have in mind - but you can get an idea of what it is like on this website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00m8rz1

Dave
 
"landing is an acquired skill. "

Dave[/QUOTE]
Still trying to acquire that skill after 40 Plus hours .
Then came Covid-19
Now the annual is due and the IA is across the Rocky Mountains.
Not to worry ............
 
Actually I’ve recently been wondering, because of POA, if some birds are better pilots than others. Like if some birds aren’t quite as elegant, maybe even clumsy. Do the other birds all talk about the one, “no situational awareness”?

Also, with watching them successfully land on a telephone pole, magpies where I am, I’m wondering if anyone is trying to emulate birds method for flying, where they can drop on a dime.
 
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