One down in the Riverland

[Desert Flower]

"A pilot has escaped serious injury after his light plane clipped power lines and crashed in the South Australian Riverland.

The pilot was the only person on board and suffered only a minor cut to the face, police say.

The plane was being used on Monday to scare birds away from an almond orchard at Loxton."

From the video I saw looks to be a blue PA-28 with a yellow stripe bordered by a darker blue down the side.

DF.

[mikewil]

Anyone know who the operator is?

I know it used to be done by Central Air Services (also in a PA28).

[onetrack]

Must have been a pretty slow-speed crash-landing, and with the power line having little effect on the aircraft structure or handling, as he landed it pretty neatly.

South Australia - light-plane crash lands at Loxton in South Australia's riverland (http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/light-plane-crashlands-at-loxton-in-south-australias-riverland/news-story/356a5824c1af91be807c8ef8b8769dd9)

[Desert Flower]

Must have been a pretty slow-speed crash-landing, and with the power line having little effect on the aircraft structure or handling, as he landed it pretty neatly.

South Australia - light-plane crash lands at Loxton in South Australia's riverland (http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/light-plane-crashlands-at-loxton-in-south-australias-riverland/news-story/356a5824c1af91be807c8ef8b8769dd9)
One newspaper report I read said the aircraft was destroyed in the crash - it still looks to be in pretty good shape to me!

DF.

[The Green Goblin]

Maybe a cable arrest aircraft carrier style landing.

A very fortunate pilot.

[Old Akro]

Wonder if it will grow if it gets water?

Extra points for lining it up with the almond trees.

[slackie]

Is it usual practice to use an aircraft to scare birds? Sounds like an accident waiting to happen!

[Desert Flower]

Wonder if it will grow if it gets water?

Extra points for lining it up with the almond trees.
I thought it was neat the way he skilfully managed to place the aircraft so the tree hid the registration! ;)

DF.

[Squawk7700]

Is it usual practice to use an aircraft to scare birds? Sounds like an accident waiting to happen!

It's been going on for years...

[gerry111]

That may be what happened after they took the shotguns off the farmers? :(

[Andy_RR]

Must be cheaper with a DJI Phantom or whatever these days, surely? A good use case for them at least

[Desert Flower]

That may be what happened after they took the shotguns off the farmers? :(
They used to use the gas powered bird scaring guns years ago, but I think the birds got used to them.

[Jetjr]

They use all those methods and still birds give the crops a pasting.

[onetrack]

You haven't seen anything that attracts birds, like an almond orchard! The parrot species in particular, will literally try everything to get to them - and birds are a lot more clever than many people think. I'd place many birds as smarter than the smartest dog.

Shooting doesn't work, the birds merely watch out for firearms and human shapes, and shot birds are simply replaced by other birds from further away who haven't realised there are shooters associated with the food trees.

Constant harassment of the birds is the best form of defence, they give up after regular harassment, and go elsewhere to find their food.
The harrassment can take multiple forms, and a variety of harassment forms keeps them on edge.

[Desert Flower]

They use all those methods and still birds give the crops a pasting.
Yes - the only "silly galahs" are the humans that think they can outwit them! ;)

DF.

[cowl flaps]

They need Ye Olde Shotgun
Two or three blokes with shotties and a pocket full of ammo.
That'll split the pairs up !

[Pinky the pilot]

Back in 1991, I flew around 175 hrs in Bird Scaring/chasing operations at the Lindsay point Almond Orchards, just over the Victorian/SA border east of Renmark.

Thoroughly enjoyed it, even though it entailed making the first sortie of the day just after first light and the last just before last light!:eek:

With various sorties staged at irregular intervals throughout the day.

Constant harassment of the birds is the best form of defence,

Em Nau!:ok:

Never flew less than 5 hours each day and finally achieved what I called 'Air Superiority' over the Feathered sods of a non reflective colour!:E ie as soon as they heard me take off, they decamped from the area!:= So sometimes I'd just do one circuit of the area and land. Other times I'd do a full hour or so of just cruising up and down the orchard but never did the same thing twice in a row.

If offered the job again....I'd grab it in a flash!!:ok::ok::E

DD; You copy?:D:ok:

[gerry111]

Bloody 'eck!

I'd never realised that there was so much money to made growing almonds!

What did you get to fly, Pinky?

[cooperplace]

Back in 1991, I flew around 175 hrs in Bird Scaring/chasing operations at the Lindsay point Almond Orchards, just over the Victorian/SA border east of Renmark.

Thoroughly enjoyed it, even though it entailed making the first sortie of the day just after first light and the last just before last light!:eek:

With various sorties staged at irregular intervals throughout the day.



Em Nau!:ok:

Never flew less than 5 hours each day and finally achieved what I called 'Air Superiority' over the Feathered sods of a non reflective colour!:E ie as soon as they heard me take off, they decamped from the area!:= So sometimes I'd just do one circuit of the area and land. Other times I'd do a full hour or so of just cruising up and down the orchard but never did the same thing twice in a row.

If offered the job again....I'd grab it in a flash!!:ok::ok::E

DD; You copy?:D:ok:

ah, Lindsay Point, when I visited in '87, they had guys on trail bikes with shotguns. That approach was working well back then. And yes, there's money in almonds.

[youngmic]

Good news the pilot survived the wire strike.

Aerial bird control has been going on for some time in fact it pre-dates the era of over the top PC and OH&S way back to a time when inventiveness was applauded......circa late 80's early nineties.

What apparently seems to work rather well in this arena is a good slow-ish speed ultralight with a surplus of climb power. Then mount a stripped down forward firing shotgun on a recoil absorbing grease lubricated mounting system, (alloy tube with glued in pvc insert lining and a grease nipple). Of course a remote triggering device will be needed obviously and a piece of string tied around the trigger and then to a convenient part of the airframe works quite well. This system will give repeatable accuracy and good service life

The best place to mount the shotgun is between the rudder pedals just outside and below the prop disc. Due to the distance between the low mounted gun and your eye sight line a sighting system will need to be employed. History shows that a spring tensioned taught piece of string attached vertically from below the overhead engine and down through the nose pod out in front of the windscreen is a simple forward sight. A movable knot along the string completing an effective and adjustable forward bead sight.

All that is now needed is the rear sight and nothing more than a fine line texta set of cross hairs, as you might guess drawn on the windscreen does the job nicely, this is cheap and effective. Undoubtedly the astute reader will wonder how distance to target can be assessed so as to determine when the angle between the bore sight line and the eye sight line coincide with the #5 shot trajectory and the effective kill range of approximately 40m. Here it is important to know the size of the target, typically a crows wingspan which is not hard to determine with the aid of a dead crow or compliant live one.

If one closes one eye whilst seated in the cockpit (on the ground) and aligning the forward bead sight with the cross hairs it becomes a simple exercise of marking (with the texta) two little vertical marks on the horizontal line of the cross hair that equates to the crows wingspan when viewed from the cockpit through the cross hairs to the forward sight and on and out to a stretched out dead crow or living as the case may be. For conformation and fine tuning a crow silhouette on an old car bonnet placed at 40m is indispensable.

All this is well and good you may ask but how would one reload such a contraption in the air whilst maneuvering at low level?. It is here that a little elemental physics and a length of thick spear gun elastic come into play. If one were to attach the spear gun rubber (or rubber sealing ring from a 12" pvc pipe) to a pair of small welded on rams horns on the stripped down breach assembly all one has to do is press the lever that breaks the breach and the elastic rubber breaks the gun leaving the wind pressure to blow the spent cartridge out of the barrel and down through the opening in the floor.

A cunning installation would of course use the same elastic chord as the primary aft recoil absorbing method and a rubber bumper or old tractor valve spring slid over the barrel as the forward return absorber which works very well.

It is said that if a system such as this is employed early enough in the season before the birds establish the orchard as a food source and an alternative food source away from the orchard is established were the birds are not harassed the battle is won with minimal killing.

However it just leaves one last question on how to actually go about doing it...but that is another story.

Of course it is only story and any resemblance to the above story and events in history is mere coincidence. ;)

[Mish A]

YM, We do have to consider that the almond growers do get a little upset when they pick up too many discarded shotgun cartridges in the orchard at harvest time. I bet there is a plan for spent cartridges?

[youngmic]

MA, in short nope, but the vast majority of engagement time would likely be spent not over the orchard itself but the adjacent paddocks.

The crow is not a fool and even the slowest witted of the mob would be in afterburner mode out of there at the first sight or sound of such a device speeding their way.

Particularly if the operator has a mind to doggedly pursue an individual to the ultimate conclusion of the encounter.

[Pinky the pilot]

Most interesting story youngmic;:ooh:
Heard much the same M'self a few years ago! Except that another bloke suggested using the Franchi Spas 12 shottie as the armament concerned, figuring that the semi auto function of said shottie would be more effective!

But as none of this ever happened, well... it does make a good story!:D

[onetrack]

If offered the job again....I'd grab it in a flash!! :ok: :ok: :E
Pinky, The photo shown in the news link, of a blue PA-28 sitting in the trees, indicates there's an immediate vacancy on offer for you in that almond orchard, right at this very moment! :E

[Lead Balloon]

Hey youngmic: You should apply for an STC for those modifications. Should be simple!

[youngmic]

You should apply for an STC for those modifications. Should be simple!

As things evolved over the years to what is now the SOP for Aerial Bird Control (no UL aircraft with shotguns) and operating under formal AOC's. The concept was run up the flag pole so to speak with CASA regarding a more conventional aircraft with door off and a side mounted installation with a 2nd person dedicated to the exercise, the initial round of talks were not dismissed.

Things moved on and other destinies called.

Heard much the same M'self a few years ago! Except that another bloke suggested using the Franchi Spas 12 shottie as the armament concerned, figuring that the semi auto function of said shottie would be more effective!



I believe this was canvassed at the time this story apparently took place, if a single shot Baikal was good a semi auto would be better was the thought. However management, so I'm told, had little to say on this but to just deftly turn a head toward the chep pallet in the shed stacked 4' high with boxes of Winchester Super X and raise an eyebrow.

I think perhaps what they were alluding to was if that pallet was required to feed a single shot for the season what the hell would they need to write on the cheque to feed a semi auto.

Fair point, learn to shoot better, discussion dropped.

[gerry111]

I reckon all those almond growers should get together and simply hire an AC-130 gunship. Let's not faff around..

[Pinky the pilot]

Pinky, The photo shown in the news link, of a blue PA-28 sitting in the trees, indicates there's an immediate vacancy on offer for you in that almond orchard, right at this very moment!


Dunno about that onetrack! Think they need another aircraft first!!

Gerry111; The a/c I flew when doing the 'bird chasing'* was a Cherokee Archer. I won't mention the reggo here.


* Used to love the looks I got when replying as to what I had been doing back then. "Bird Chasing, and in a light aircraft!":D:E

[linedriva]

Bird scaring was a great way to hone some flying skills - decided it was time to look for something else when I found myself doing a steep turn at treetop height whilst twisting to look out of the rear window of a Cherokee. I was concentrating on getting rid of the buggers rather than flying the aircraft! - that was 20+ years ago and I've got my priorities in far better shape now!