Eagle spotted at Fort Funston
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 6:25 pmI stopped by Fort Funston today, and Fred H. had his unique bird shaped RC glider out for its first long flight. This glider has a 6’ wingspan, and is pretty much a scale model of a Golden Eagle, from the rounded 3-dimensional body and accurately angled wings, even down to the spread out tip feathers that are moving control surfaces. Even the tail rocks side to side, just like a real bird!
He built it out of blue foam, carbon fiber, wood and fiberglass. It has a hard skin, and is fairly heavy so it likes strong wing. He did a great job of making it look real, from the glass eyes down to the painted feather markings and coloration.
It looks so realistic that there was a flock of about 15 Ravens flying around it trying to figure out what this big bird was doing in their airspace. They didn't attack it, but did a lot of real close passes. They were probably confused because their swoops didn't get the bigger birds feathers ruffled. It was very cool to watch the entire flock flying with the Eagle through big sweeping 360's, then parking back into the wind to check him out some more. Freddy did a great job of taking a visionary idea to reality!
PS; The only thing it needs now is some talons rigged like retractable landing gear, so he can flip it over on its back in mid air and scare the crap out of those Ravens!
He built it out of blue foam, carbon fiber, wood and fiberglass. It has a hard skin, and is fairly heavy so it likes strong wing. He did a great job of making it look real, from the glass eyes down to the painted feather markings and coloration.
It looks so realistic that there was a flock of about 15 Ravens flying around it trying to figure out what this big bird was doing in their airspace. They didn't attack it, but did a lot of real close passes. They were probably confused because their swoops didn't get the bigger birds feathers ruffled. It was very cool to watch the entire flock flying with the Eagle through big sweeping 360's, then parking back into the wind to check him out some more. Freddy did a great job of taking a visionary idea to reality!
PS; The only thing it needs now is some talons rigged like retractable landing gear, so he can flip it over on its back in mid air and scare the crap out of those Ravens!