Mavic vs Hawk

Baltorep · Sep 17, 2017

I had just launched my Mavic on a beautiful fall day when less than one minute into my flight out of nowhere a Hawk was diving in for what I thought was a kill. By the time I saw the Hawk and saw the bird tucking in its wings I was toast. No use in trying to evade. Once those wings were tucked in, I braced myself to try and hopefully control my Mavic's ultimate death spiral. Take a look at the video to see the outcome.

Mavic_Pete · Sep 17, 2017

Woah! Crazy!!

RayMorris · Sep 17, 2017

OMG!! Fantastic footage and I'm glad for both you and the hawk that there was no contact! Great music for that as well.

WillB · Sep 17, 2017

And did the hawk come out OK, or get nicked by a propeller?

Jacknet007 · Sep 17, 2017

Lucky for the both of you! Maybe dinner did not sound right!

Baltorep · Sep 17, 2017

Thank you. My nerves were shot. The near miss happened almost directly overhead. All I could do was to watch in total helplessness.

JMF · Sep 17, 2017

Baltorep said:
Thank you. My nerves were shot. The near miss happened almost directly overhead. All I could do was to watch in total helplessness.

I would have punched the Mavic straight up full speed.

Baltorep · Sep 17, 2017

WillB said:
And did the hawk come out OK, or get nicked by a propeller?

I’m pretty sure the Hawk came out good. That was my concern after I got my stomach out of my throat. I watched it fly away straight away from my Mavic.

Baltorep · Sep 17, 2017

JMF said:
I would have punched the Mavic straight up full speed.

I wish I had more time. I didn’t see the Hawk until the wings were tucked in. I had less than 2 seconds. Hawks are so fast...

JMF · Sep 17, 2017

Baltorep said:
I wish I had more time. I didn’t see the Hawk until the wings were tucked in. I had less than 2 seconds. Hawks are so fast...

I hear ya, I was out this afternoon and a hawk was circling quite a bit higher than my Mavic, I knew if he attacked it would be quick so I just came down until he disappeared, that was a great video by the way.

Baltorep · Sep 18, 2017

JMF said:
I hear ya, I was out this afternoon and a hawk was circling quite a bit higher than my Mavic, I knew if he attacked it would be quick so I just came down until he disappeared, that was a great video by the way.

Thank you JMF. Whenever I see large birds paying attention to my Mavic I do the same as you and high tail it out of the air. The sad thing about this flight is, if you look at the video where I call out "what is that black dot," the Hawk is actually further away than that. It is just harder to see at 720p. The raw video is at 2.7K and I can see the Hawk turn and head my direction 32 seconds before near impact. 32 seconds... My flight before near impact was only about 85 seconds long. Hawks are amazing birds. He/she never flapped its wings once during it's entire flight towards my Mavic. I wish I knew how to determine the distance the Hawk traveled. From what I could tell from the footage was the Hawk made one large turn from the point it saw my Mavic then traveled virtually straight to the point of near impact in 32 seconds. I wish I paid more attention in math class... Maybe someone on the forum has better math skills and hawk knowledge than I.

JMF · Sep 18, 2017

Baltorep said:
Thank you JMF. Whenever I see large birds paying attention to my Mavic I do the same as you and high tail it out of the air. The sad thing about this flight is, if you look at the video where I call out "what is that black dot," the Hawk is actually further away than that. It is just harder to see at 720p. The raw video is at 2.7K and I can see the Hawk turn and head my direction 32 seconds before near impact. 32 seconds... My flight before near impact was only about 85 seconds long. Hawks are amazing birds. He/she never flapped its wings once during it's entire flight towards my Mavic. I wish I knew could determine the distance the Hawk traveled. From what I could tell from the footage was the Hawk made one large turn from the point it saw my Mavic then traveled virtually straight to the point of near impact in 32 seconds. I wish I paid more attention in math class... Maybe someone on the forum has better math skills and hawk knowledge than I.

Lol !!