Los Angeles, CA—I had a
brainstorm while watching a news story of those dangerous and sometimes deadly
bird strikes that plague airports.
I wasted no time in calling
my American Airlines pilot pal to ask him his thoughts on my idea. He loved the idea and is convinced it’s
inexpensive, workable and lifesaving.
Wow! This is the very same buddy that got me hooked on drones!
For some reason birds love
airports and thrive in the critical runway areas where planes take off and
land. They are often seen as high as
5,000 feet and collisions between aircraft and birds have been catastrophic.
When you try to deal with the
airport bird problem battle lines are drawn between the airports and the bird
lovers. Poisoning or shooting the birds
is not on the table as a viable solution.
My idea is a simple one. Airport workers could use small drones to stalk
and chase the birds away. Today airports
must use workers in various ground vehicles to chase the birds. Fences and brush too often keep the workers
from getting close enough to the birds to frighten them away.
I’ve had birds actually
attack my drones in the air. Thankfully
I’ve evaded them so far. I know birds
have a sense of hearing and survival and my drone like airplanes can’t seem to
intimidate. However there are other ways!
I’m convinced that a drone
equipped with a small electronic loudspeaker emitting a siren, horn or some
frequency could solve the problem. This
would frighten or annoy the birds into finding peace elsewhere. The drones of course would harm no birds or
planes.
The most vulnerable portion
of airplane flights is during takeoff and landing. Flocks of birds have shut down jet engines on
multiple occasions.
Pilots are required to report
bird sightings and that consumes a significant amount of time and
paperwork. Fewer birds mean more
efficient flight operations in addition to improved safety.
This morning I spoke briefly
with one of the bird experts at Cornell University. His first thought was that this idea might
well be an effective solution. That
expert promised to bring this up with his peers for discussion.
This idea merits immediate
research and testing by the slow moving FAA.
Since this idea is potentially life
saving to please feel free to send this around to other people interested in
the safety of our skies.
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