Hawk attacking my glider video in Malibu

[micro birds]

hey all
just wanted to share this video of a red tail hawk attacking my firefly glider, we danced for a few minutes before she strategically maneuvered above me and a quick peck, lost my canopy but what a fun time.
enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AfRegeThLA

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As fighter pilots say, "A kill is a kill."

Ask British Hang Gliding Team pilot Judy Leden what it's like to be shot down by a Wedgetail eagle. (Australia, 1988 on a practice flight two days before the World Championships started)

The "Wedgie" took offense on her territorial encroachment and slashed her Dacron sail so severely that she had to deploy her emergency parachute.

The manufacturer express shipped a replacement sail in time for Judy to compete in the Championships. Every pilot offered to buy her chicken, goose, turkey, quail, duck or other avian sandwiches every day.

No eagle sandwiches, though. You obviously don't want to **** those guys off.

[micro birds]

that is an incredible story, thank you for sharing, is there a video of this event? and how often does such incidents happen with hang gliders?

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Probably no video- it was 1988 and video cameras weren't as small, cheap and available as they are today. The Wedgetails in Australia can be quite aggressive. At Mt. Elliott (Corryong, NSW), the hang glider launch had a sign warning pilots about "Mr. Elliott," the resident Wedgetail, who seemed to delight in ripping sails with his talons, until he discovered an even more hilarious (to him, anyway) method of screwing with hang glider pilots. He would come up from behind, grab one of the bungees that held the battens in place, flare his wings and yank the bungee off. And then he would go for the next one...and then the next. By the time he was done, the glider was badly out of trim and invariably had to go land. And nearly always whacked it in due to the flappy sail situation.

I flew there a couple of times, and when I saw him coming, I would aggressively turn into him to try to take photographs. This must have startled him, as he never attacked, but just flew in formation for quite a while. Sometimes he was in the "wingman" position, sometimes he was in the 6 o'clock "slot" position and sometimes he was "leader." And you just can't imagine how cool it is to see a six foot wingspan raptor four feet in front of you with his head turned nearly 180 degrees, looking you in the eye!

In nearly 30 years of hang gliding, mostly at Sandia Peak in Albuquerque, NM, I had the pleasure of flying with Golden Eagles several times each year. Since we were such regular attractions, and the nesting pairs just got used to us, we saw them up close quite often. Each year's fledglings would invariably come up to check us out. Their curiosity seemed to wane pretty quickly once they figured out we weren't edible, weren't bringing them food or sex, and we couldn't fly for ****. And, no, I never heard of an eagle attack at Sandia, but I knew of others around the US.