gaggling with migratory birds
Like many soaring pilots, I have shared dozens of thermals with raptors. Mostly, they seem happy for me to show them where the lift is.
Years ago, on another continent, I came across a huge flock of cranes flying between thermals at around 12,000 feet. As slow as I could fly, I still caught up with them. When I was about twenty feet behind them, they peeled away, let me through the gap and then re-formed behind me.
I think it's pretty hard for a sailplane to harass birds. Flying single-engine planes ten feet over a lake full of migratory birds is another matter entirely and well worth some ass-kicking.
Mike
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