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Intense Story with a Hawk

SoapyGolem

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It's is a beautiful day here in Las Vegas Nevada, The sun is Shining there is light breeze of wind a perfect day for flying, and i was ready to have a blast until the biggest scare of drone life happened..... I drove out in the desert where the mountains looked awesome. Telling myself, "I'm going to get some awesome footage for my next video montage." I popped in my first battery flew out over 1500 feet took some great video, pictures, I was just a happy nothing can ruin my day. about 25 minutes or so my battery starting beeping and took my Mavic "Hank" back in to land and swap my battery. I landed check video looks awesome and decided i need to get some more footage of the landscape. Flew about 200 feet high and about 300 feet away not to far at all. Until i saw this HUGE hawk! its wingspan looked like 5x bigger than my little mavic. Its coming straight for it about 50 feet away close and CLOSER! I instantly start screaming to myself "BAIL!, BAIL!,BAIL!" I pushed Full throttle all the way down and turned so fast, yelling come back to me! and the Hawk turns to come back for my mavic again. Speeding back to me as fast as i can Thinking "sport mode?" didnt have time..... My palms are sweaty, my adrenaline is pumping I'm so scared. Finally made it back to me, having my hands up trying to scare the hawk away, and landed, and just said thank god! that would of been terrible. The Hawk then flew back in the sky and just soars around me, as if it saying "this is my area" for about 20 minutes. I then left and called it for the day and said you win.


I just want to say thank you from all those post about bird attacks because if it wasn't for them. I would have just hovered and say wow look at that hawk! let me get some video and boom! Mavic dead. Ever since reading about bird attacks i always kept a eye out.... looked around to make sure there was no birds. I rarely even see birds here in Las Vegas anyway most i ever see is a pigeons. So i wasn't to worried about it. until today I saw the Hawk i instantly knew it was coming for the drone, no hesitation i bailed, because of reading this forum saved me my drone and money.

So to tell everyone be careful about birds, HAWKS more importantly. even if you think there will be none trust me they are watching.

My questions:

What can we do to prevent our drones getting attack by birds?

Do you have any story's about a bird attacks?

What kind of species of bird are aggresive in the air? Hawk, Ducks, Geese? what birds should you watch out for most?

Thank you again drone pilots.
 
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Who knows, I do not know anyone who had to use DJI refresh for bird attacks
 
Sport mode straight up, then boogie in a direction it would be hard for the bird to switch to and catch up.
 
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This story does make a person wonder what to do if returning to home on a critical low battery alarm.
 
Nothing like your story, but when I went out yesterday there were 5 very large turkey buzzards flying very low in my area. I had thought to just come back in, but they moved on and there was no incident. Like you, I've read too many stories to take a chance!
 
Nothing like your story, but when I went out yesterday there were 5 very large turkey buzzards flying very low in my area. I had thought to just come back in, but they moved on and there was no incident. Like you, I've read too many stories to take a chance!

Yeah im scared now to fly looking for birds
 
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It's is a beautiful day here in Las Vegas Nevada, The sun is Shining there is light breeze of wind a perfect day for flying, and i was ready to have a blast until the biggest scare of drone life happened..... I drove out in the desert where the mountains looked awesome. Telling myself, "I'm going to get some awesome footage for my next video montage." I popped in my first battery flew out over 1500 feet took some great video, pictures, I was just a happy nothing can ruin my day. about 25 minutes or so my battery starting beeping and took my Mavic "Hank" back in to land and swap my battery. I landed check video looks awesome and decided i need to get some more footage of the landscape. Flew about 200 feet high and about 300 feet away not to far at all. Until i saw this HUGE hawk! its wingspan looked like 5x bigger than my little mavic. Its coming straight for it about 50 feet away close and CLOSER! I instantly start screaming to myself "BAIL!, BAIL!,BAIL!" I pushed Full throttle all the way down and turned so fast, yelling come back to me! and the Hawk turns to come back for my mavic again. Speeding back to me as fast as i can Thinking "sport mode?" didnt have time..... My palms are sweaty, my adrenaline is pumping I'm so scared. Finally made it back to me, having my hands up trying to scare the hawk away, and landed, and just said thank god! that would of been terrible. The Hawk then flew back in the sky and just soars around me, as if it saying "this is my area" for about 20 minutes. I then left and called it for the day and said you win.


I just want to say thank you from all those post about bird attacks because if it wasn't for them. I would have just hovered and say wow look at that hawk! let me get some video and boom! Mavic dead. Ever since reading about bird attacks i always kept a eye out.... looked around to make sure there was no birds. I rarely even see birds here in Las Vegas anyway most i ever see is a pigeons. So i wasn't to worried about it. until today I saw the Hawk i instantly knew it was coming for the drone, no hesitation i bailed, because of reading this forum saved me my drone and money.

So to tell everyone be careful about birds, HAWKS more importantly. even if you think there will be none trust me they are watching.

My questions:

What can we do to prevent our drones getting attack by birds?

Do you have any story's about a bird attacks?

What kind of species of bird are aggresive in the air? Hawk, Ducks, Geese? what birds should you watch out for most?

Thank you again drone pilots.

PRO TIP; when attacked by a bird --> CLIMB that will scare the **** out of any hunting bird. Preys typically dive. Try it and you will see how they get away from your drone
 
Thanks man!

I have a couple of stories, some of the birds around here are very territorial and actually the behavior is quite interesting.

Some times I have seen that a single bird is flying around they get close to check the drone out just for curiosity. If they get bothered by it, they will bring their friends along and will start flying in closer formation towards the craft, and everytime getting closer. If you keep hovering on the same place they wont like it and they will get again closer and closer. So my advice is, if its smaller non raptor birds just keep calm and give them enough space to fly, its their space anyway so just keep your flying route and land when possible.

Now, raptors are another thing. They will typically fly higher than your drone , hover for a bit and dive not so aggressively, but definitely in the craft direction. they dont like competition and they dont see you as food but as an intruder to their hunting area. So if you see one getting close, turn sport mode, and climb. Now once I did something really stupid TBH, but I think it scared the bird even more. I started climbing towards him, full speed, 2 seconds later he turned around and dived. Poor guy probably tough he was going to be a meal. I felt bad and have never done it again.
 
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It's is a beautiful day here in Las Vegas Nevada, The sun is Shining there is light breeze of wind a perfect day for flying, and i was ready to have a blast until the biggest scare of drone life happened..... I drove out in the desert where the mountains looked awesome. Telling myself, "I'm going to get some awesome footage for my next video montage." I popped in my first battery flew out over 1500 feet took some great video, pictures, I was just a happy nothing can ruin my day. about 25 minutes or so my battery starting beeping and took my Mavic "Hank" back in to land and swap my battery. I landed check video looks awesome and decided i need to get some more footage of the landscape. Flew about 200 feet high and about 300 feet away not to far at all. Until i saw this HUGE hawk! its wingspan looked like 5x bigger than my little mavic. Its coming straight for it about 50 feet away close and CLOSER! I instantly start screaming to myself "BAIL!, BAIL!,BAIL!" I pushed Full throttle all the way down and turned so fast, yelling come back to me! and the Hawk turns to come back for my mavic again. Speeding back to me as fast as i can Thinking "sport mode?" didnt have time..... My palms are sweaty, my adrenaline is pumping I'm so scared. Finally made it back to me, having my hands up trying to scare the hawk away, and landed, and just said thank god! that would of been terrible. The Hawk then flew back in the sky and just soars around me, as if it saying "this is my area" for about 20 minutes. I then left and called it for the day and said you win.


I just want to say thank you from all those post about bird attacks because if it wasn't for them. I would have just hovered and say wow look at that hawk! let me get some video and boom! Mavic dead. Ever since reading about bird attacks i always kept a eye out.... looked around to make sure there was no birds. I rarely even see birds here in Las Vegas anyway most i ever see is a pigeons. So i wasn't to worried about it. until today I saw the Hawk i instantly knew it was coming for the drone, no hesitation i bailed, because of reading this forum saved me my drone and money.

So to tell everyone be careful about birds, HAWKS more importantly. even if you think there will be none trust me they are watching.

My questions:

What can we do to prevent our drones getting attack by birds?

Do you have any story's about a bird attacks?

What kind of species of bird are aggresive in the air? Hawk, Ducks, Geese? what birds should you watch out for most?

Thank you again drone pilots.
I'm spending 3 days in Vegas for work. How far out of the city do you have to drive before you can fly?

sent from mobile device
 
What area did you go? I live in green valley. Always interested in good places to fly and places to avoid. Lol


I can see the earth rotating from up here!
 
It is going into raptor mating season... so they will be aggressive particularly this time of year...
 
PRO TIP; when attacked by a bird --> CLIMB that will scare the **** out of any hunting bird. Preys typically dive. Try it and you will see how they get away from your drone

I just did this! I was in sports mode and it looked like 3 birds of prey were descending on my Mavic! I climbed and zoomed away. They peeled and got out of there. I don't want to refresh this thing anytime soon
 
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I'm spending 3 days in Vegas for work. How far out of the city do you have to drive before you can fly?

sent from mobile device


Not to far, just depends where you are, Near Red rock some of the best flying and hiking great footage you can get
 
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