heli_headcase
Veteran
Location: Hovering around Atlanta
| Pet Birds and Model Flying Events...I have a pair of smaller parrots and if the conditions are deemed to be "safe" will bring them out to R/C events.
In my earlier years of bird ownership and care, which spans 19 years this Sept, I fantasized about showing off my feathered friends to attendees of modeling gatherings. Other than worrying about environmental condition extremes, physical injury was most most prominent a factor to consider when being around either whirling rotors or spinning props.
The easiest first-line of defense of having a bird get itself into a bad situation is to be sure its wing feathers are trimmed as necessary to prevent sustained flight. And 95% of the time this is good enough as proven by "test flying" the trimmed bird. But guess what? The muscle energy produced when performing a simple test flight can be easily HALF of the energy available when fear or a shot of adrenalin is added to the bird's system. My amazon, Max, has the glide of a light brick in his current state of wing trim (he's also out of shape as he doesn't exercise his wing muscles at all) but just let him catch a glimpse of something he's mortally afraid of, a cat for example, and suddenly he's in "turbo/nitrous" mode and covering a bunch of ground. I had to rescue him from the roof of a neighbor's house after such an event. And to think he could jump and fly over to a spinning set of rotor blades under the right circumstance makes me nauseous at the idea.
The only solution, if I insist on bringing him with me, is to equip him with a small harness specially designed to safely prevent escapes and injury. It's not the perfect solution either as Max struggles to get the harness off, stressing himself and looking like Harry Houdini losing a bet. And if given enough time will manage to "pick the lock" and the harness opens up. Here's Max in the harness but without the matching leash -
I feel very sorry for the owner of the macaw and for the bird itself but don't these owners of free-flying parrots realize just how much more they're risking the wellbeing of their pets if allowed to do as they please? Sure, nothing is perfectly safe and just living has its risky side but we try to minimize risks that can do damage. A friend owns an amazingly cute, pretty and smart Sun conure. Leo (the bird) is completely free to fly outdoors with supervision. Leo has excellent "street smarts" of the air. He's managed to dodge hawks, from what I've been told. If the day comes where I hear that Leo is gone (fly away, death) due to this activity, an "I told you so" will be useless and far too late.
My birds mean more to me than my heli's and are also considered as my kids. They'd be the very first things to be pulled from the house in case of a fire or other life-threatening household emergency. Tools second, heli's next. I don't like hearing about pets (birds in particular) being injured and when I spotted this thread wasn't sure I wanted to follow it to the conclusion of the macaw's current health status. Glad to know there's hope for a recovery and will be watching this for more updates. That's all I have to say for now...
HHC
So many heli's - too little time... |
----things like this do happen and are going to happen as the air get filled with more and more of man and his stuff that flies. The birds were in the air first NOT MAN.
