Sheep and helos

[heli1]

If there are sheep grazing on your landing area as you approach will they
A) panic and run into the nearest hedge
B) stay still
C) charge the aforesaid threat head on
D)sheepishly move out of the way

We know horses react badly and cows are none too happy either,and too big to argue with,but sheep?

[mad_jock]

Sheep are thick as hell and although not a heli pilot I would say that you can't be sure what they will do ever.

In general they should flock together. Where that will actually go is in the hands of god.

Lambing time they are more thick than usual so if you get between a mother and a lamb she will go to the lamb away from the flock.

They are also very susceptible to known factors so if the field is used regularly they won't react at all. If its a one off they will react.

If you go to any artillery range they all have sheep grazing on the target areas. They don't move with 105mm HE coming in. Put a smoke down and all hell lets loose.

[handysnaks]

However, should you park in a field containing sheep for any time, don't be surprised if you come back to find them nibbling away at bits of your machine!!

[Fareastdriver]

If you go to any artillery range they all have sheep grazing on the target areas.

They all go there because it's the safest place.

[onetrack]

A) Yes
B) Never
C) Never
D) Never

Sheep are easily panicked, and the flock will follow one sheep who looks like a leader. The leader usually has no idea where to run, though.

If the sheep have nowhere open to run to, they will run, panic-stricken, into hedges, fences, whatever is in the way - and injure themselves.

If the leader decides to jump over a low spot in a hedge, every single sheep in that field will follow that leader.

If the leader "sees" an obstruction that isn't there, and makes a desperate leap over it - every following sheep will jump exactly the same height, in exactly the same spot. Sheep can jump surprisingly high.

If the sheep have a large field to disperse into, they will follow the leader to a safe (to them) distant spot in the field, and then they will all stop and turn and watch you.

[skadi]

Or they run like hell in their wellknown shelter.
As "handysnaks" wrote, you shouldnt park your ship unattendet for longer time between sheeps. I know of a jetbanger, which was used by sheep as a climbing rock overnight with severe damage to the windscreen :}

skadi

[SASless]

Goats share many of the same responses to that of Sheep.

It was great sport in Iran, during a mis-spent youth, to keep Ali busy rounding up his herd of Goats.

No matter how many times you flew over....the Goats reacted exactly the same....charging off in all directions hither and yon.

With a bit of luck....which provided the right timing....you could have the unmitigated pleasure of seeing said spectacle all day long.....as Ali never figured it out either.

[Savoia]

http://www.bluetonguehelicopters.com.au/pprune/sheep.jpg
.............................

[paco]

Actually, horses don't react that badly according to a study from Bristol Uni. Cows like you to fly low because they can't raise their heads to look at you, otherwise, they don't bother much, either.

I never found sheep to be much of a problem when patrolling the 11 kv lines.

Phil

[SASless]

Welsh Pilot flying ol' number 10?

[Agaricus bisporus]

+1 to Paco.

If you can land at one end or corner of the field they seem to feel less threatened, and avoid overflying them if you can. There must be enough room for them to get to a comfortable distance or they might try to go over/through the hedge.

Sheep, horses and cattle have never given me a problem at all.

Poultry is another matter, as are poultry farmers with a sniff of compensation for hundreds of "dead" birds...

[skadi]

Cows first run away but usually come back after shutdown to inspect the machine :

Weeze: Kühe belagern Polizei-Hubschrauber (http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/kevelaer/kuehe-belagern-polizei-hubschrauber-aid-1.2877407)

skadi

[paco]

And if you have a skeeter they will lick the dope off the rotor blades :)

[heli1]

Thanks guys.....so no good using sheep to keep the grass short then!

[topendtorque]

I remember bad issues with chooks, near Darwin one had only to fly within five miles of a certain chookery and the phone lines to the little men in the glass house would run hot. same issues in Adelaide at Archerfield where the little men brought the stories of chooks heads half a foot further on than their wings thru the netting down to the bar on Friday arvo and how hard they had worked to get us off the hook, meanwhile we had to shout them heaps of calming fluid.

so it was quite different a while later where I one day did a beat up, which involved a low fly over the chook house. Now the six year old son at this joint who was as exuberant a kid as you would ever imagine cottoned onto the fact that this made the chooks punch out more eggs, so whenever I'd arrive there he would tear down and demand a quick flight around with a beat up of the chooks house and proudly skite how many extra eggs he collected.

Still keep in touch with his parents, but that kid now has around seven thousand hours mustering over in Qld. I often wonder whether he beats up chooks houses nowadays.

[parabellum]

Back around 1966 I was flying in Libya, they hadn't seen too many helicopters then, the general consensus was that the goats, who scattered as soon as we appeared, were thinking we were birds of prey after their young.

Young cattle, be they steers or heifers, are very, very curious about pretty much anything, older dairy herds are less bothered.

[Hughesy]

E: Look attractive :E

[wicks747]

I know of a few runways in nz that have sheep grazing. For a while you have to buzz the strip to clear them off before landing but after a while they learn and will move on there own accord when they hear an air craft. Like said above if there are lambs in the mix it's a completely different story

[Ian Corrigible]

E: Look attractiveAh, so you're the one that sign was referring to...

Sign warning of man/sheep sex shows up in Chicago tornado broadcast (http://www.mediaite.com/online/sign-warning-of-mansheep-sex-shows-up-in-chicago-tornado-broadcast)

:E

I/C

[MrSnuggles]

Just passing by as a seasoned sheep owner...

1) As someone said: Don't fly over their heads. They will be scared and run all over the place.

2) Try to land in a corner of the pasture, this will provide the sheep (or goats!) with more options to run around/away.

3) If there is no corner; seek out a place with very few sheep. (Yes, I couldn't resist... ;-D )

4) When you have landed, don't leave your machine unattended. I vouch for sheep (and goat) curiousity and if that machine is unattended you might very well have sheep aviation school going on when you return.

5) Sheep are often very friendly once they have sniffed you on your cheek (they don't go for the crotch like dogs..) and usually love a nice petting.

6) Never feed bread or the like to sheep and goats.

So...

A - YES!! (It can be a lot of fun watching them but please remember that they can literally die if they get too scared... farmer wanting money for dead sheep... local news... you see where I'm going...)
B - no
C - no
D - no

[Ascend Charlie]

Sheeps is such stoopid people...

Flying power lines around Corowa, a flock ran ahead of me, split around a large clump of trees, and met each other head-on at the other side, several left lying on the ground, feet in the air.

A week later, another flock flocked off ahead of me, most peeled around a big steel pole, one ran smack into it, d- e- a- d, pronounced dead.

Cows never seemed to mind unless I was too low.

Horses are brainless critters that will run at the sight of a piece of paper fluttering in the breeze, and other times I could land 100m away and they barely looked at me. Totally unpredictable.

[pants on fire...]

The reason that sheep run away whenever they see or hear helicopters is because they are only too aware of the reputation of helicopter pilots! :uhoh:

[Ascend Charlie]

Not necessarily run away.

Many moons ago I landed in a wheat paddock west of Wyalong at 2am because I scared myself using a Nightsun to do a search for an escapee. Told the ground crew I wouldn't fly till the sun was up, crawled into the back of the B206, with my (male) observer, rugged up as best as we could against the mid-winter chill, and tried to sleep.

About 5am, woken by the feeling that the machine was moving - a flock of sheep was rubbing and bumping into the aircraft. They obviously knew my observer was a Kiwi and were clamouring for some action - the Aussies wouldn't give it to them...:}

[blakmax]

I have been watching this thread and wondering how long it would take to get to the kiwi sheep discussions. Well, here goes.

I guess there is no problem with horses and helicopters in En Zud. The horses have seen what happens to the sheep.

Ok, can I get my coat first?

Blakmax

[mad_jock]

The reason that sheep run away whenever they see or hear helicopters is because they are only too aware of the reputation of helicopter pilots!


And to be fair also of the ground crew. With whom its a toss up if they get eaten or shagged. Or sometimes to add insult to injury both.

[TRC]

I posted this in 2009, the theory still holds I think......

Something that we discovered from balloon flying and low-level helicopter aerial work is, as I think was mentioned earlier horses, cattle, pigs are relatively happy if they can SEE what's making the noise.

Trouble is, these animals are not wired to look UP for danger having never had an airborne enemy.

If you surprise these animals, say by flying low over a field bounded by high trees, they go bonkers - usually trying to go straight through the fence or up the nearest tree.

We conducted several experiments so that we could operate with the least disturbance to these animals. The first was a herd of young cattle, the helicopter, with G/A radio contact approached the field from some distance fairly flat and I stood in the herd "talking to" the girls (well, not IN the herd but near enough to get away if it went pear-shaped). They were fine, couldn't care less.

The second time was with a group of Highland cattle. They were lying down doing what cows do. We did the same flat bomber command approach and landed 50 yards from them. They didn't even get up. Horses seem to act in a similar way if they can see what's going on. I can't guarantee that this will work all the time, but it was interesting.

As I say, if you surprise them and they can't see what's going on - all hell can break loose.

[FSXPilot]

One of my customers left their R44 in field full of sheep. They did about £5,000 of damage using it as a back scratcher.

[Ascend Charlie]

Went to retrieve a Huey that had been left overnight in a field after an unexpected control diversion.

The nose-mounted pitot tube was bent at a funny angle and the cows nearby had a satisfied smile on their faces.


See, not a Kiwi joke after all.:ok:

[Savoia]

Originally Posted by gulliBell

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7452/11034183804_a3696172d3_b.jpg .................

[Savoia]

It's a lamb chopper!

The Westmorland Gazette, Friday 29th November 2013

An air ambulance pilot was forced to employ down-to-earth shepherding skills after his helicopter was mobbed by sheep on Kirkstone Pass.

The Great North Air Ambulance landed on pastureland after being called to an injured cyclist who had fallen off his bike while descending The Struggle, near Ambleside.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wpoEzgcb1_I/Upmsc0c2xrI/AAAAAAAAPlI/Cwh0n835fYM/w955-h521-no/G-NHAB+with+sheep.png

Gazette reader Simon Whitfield, who photographed the incident, said: “The helicopter was quickly surrounded and mobbed by a flock of curious sheep, which encircled the chopper and its pilot. He had to use some shepherding skills in order to shoo them away so he could attend to the injured man.”

It's a lamb chopper! (From The Westmorland Gazette) (http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/10845085.It_s_a_lamb_chopper_/)

[DX Wombat]

You could always carry a sheepdog with you, winch it out, let it herd the sheep into a corner and you would then have a nice, clear landing area.

[tacr2man]

Like a lot of other animals a lot can depend on "conditioning" , I used to land in field next to my house , and after a few visits the sheep didnt even use to react at all :cool:

[robin303]

Silly cows at my LZ at Ft. Hood.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w83/robin303/Army%20Aviation/11-2.jpg

[FlightlessParrot]

Not a pilot, but I have spent a fair amount of time driving through mobs of sheep in Australia and NZ, and the behaviour is different.

I got used to merinos in Aust. suddenly throwing themselves under the front wheels of the car as you slowly pushed through the flock. I was therefore startled in my first NZ mob, when they actually ran away like sensible creatures--these were various wool/meat breeds. I am pretty sure the difference is solely down to the breed; merinos are regarded with disdain by the farmers I've talked to, and seem to have solid bone where most creatures (including other breeds of sheep) have brains.

So I think you need to know what sheep they are: if merinos, assume they will do whatever is most harmful to themselves and all others around them.

[Ascend Charlie]

There is another more obvious reason why the NZ sheep ran away when a man approached......:sad:

[Savoia]

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-dw2FqSJ1YbA/Uqi00BwsM1I/AAAAAAAAQJA/5S7SiOUiqbo/w806-h435-no/D-HAFH.png



...............

[nomorehelosforme]

On the sheep,

[diginagain]

Setting yourself up to get lambushed the second you step out of the cab.

[ACW599]

Here in rural Shropshire, DHFS Squirrels and Griffins use one of our fields for confined-area work. Three adjacent large fields have been frequently used for cattle by local farmers. This year we have had the pleasure of sheep for the first time. I can't imagine how farmers cope with the stink of a flock of sheep on a hot day.

I have never seen cattle take the slightest notice of helicopters. The sheep initially seemed to flock and panic as described by others but after the first few occasions stopped taking much notice. Yesterday they were lying down and did not even get up when a Griffin flew a couple of orbits, landed and took off almost directly over their field. It appears that they get used to helicopters quite quickly.

[blakmax]

So, ACW599 appears to confirm Ascend Charlies assertion about why the sheep in ENZID run away when approached by helicopter pilots.

And just to be fair, I am certain it is not just helicopter pilots who engender that response. :E

Regards

Blakmax