Bird Control or short time scaring ?
At the recent International Birdstrike Committee meeting held in York last month the expert opinion was that the only form of airport bird control is man himself. That man/woman has to be a dedicated bird control operator and he/she should be on duty during airport opening hours. Part time bird control is not fair on aircrew.
To make RFFS staff dress up in their hot firefighting kit and drive up and down the runway ‘scaring’ birds makes a mockery of flight safety. Birds need to be ‘controlled’ using habitat management, knowledge of behaviour patterns, understanding of flight lines, removal of attractants and clever dispersal techniques not merely scaring.
If you fire a bird scaring cartridge at a flock of starlings you will have four flocks of starlings. If you play a distress tape to a ring necked gull it wont fly away, it will come to the source to investigate and only fly away after you have switched the tape off.
Most RFFS staff consider themselves as highly qualified CAA licenced professionals and do not see bird control as part of their remit. Clever birds will return as soon as the RFFS staff return to the station.
The conundrum is smaller airports are being squeezed and they must find savings or go bankrupt. So does safety come before money ?
Vulcan Lover