The Birds

[kyleb]

The fellow who has the hangar adjacent to mine recently earned his A&P, so airplanes cycle to and from his hangar pretty frequently. When I arrived at the airport early yesterday afternoon, there was a nice Ercoupe outside his hangar.

There was an AD in '93 or '94 which required a gazillion inspection panels on the underside of Ercoupe's wings, and my friend had removed all of the panels and headed out to lunch and to run some errands.

Bad move. It is bird nesting season here. The activity around the Ercoupe made it look like move-in day at college. Birds were lined up to choose their access hole and build a nest. Seriously, I bet 3 or 4 pair of birds were either scoping out the amenities or actively building nests.

My buddy arrived a few minutes after I did, shooed the birds away and tacked the inspection panels back in place. I bet that is one lesson they don't teach in A&P school. And I bet he doesn't leave an unbuttoned airplane sitting out during nesting season again...

 

[Geico266]

I have seen nests built in planes tied down for a couple of days. Preflight is a very good thing this time of year.

 

[Matthew]

I watched a bird try to build a nest on top of a plane that just landed. It's been a few years, but I think it was a King Air (or similar). It didn't have the t-tail. The plane had only been on the ramp a short time when a bird with a beak full of twigs landed on top of the vertical stab. He, or she, was trying build the nest up on top but kept sliding down the leading edge and having to fly back up each time. This went on, over and over, for about 10 minutes before the bird gave up and left. Those things are persistent and don't waste any time.

 

[Swampfox201]

I run an agricultural seed dealership and use an auger to fill customers order. I can clean out a bird nest at the end of the auger only to have the nest rebuilt an hour later. Farmers get crabby when they have a bird nest in their planter.