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Saturday 11/3/07

Even though it was really, really cold this morning, I was determined to fly. I called up Matt and asked him if he wanted to try out flying in Martinsville since he’d never been there before. He was in. We met up in Greenwood and he followed me down there. We had a late start, but that was O.K. since it was so cold. Every bit we waiting it would just be that much warmer. There was a big advertisement sign in Martinsville that had the temperature on it - 36 degrees. This was gonna be CHILLY!

We got to the field and got all set up. We didn’t launch until almost 10:30. Matt took off and I took off right behind him. The air was nice and smooth still.

Matt followed me down to the river a little ways and disappeared shortly thereafter. A short while after I lost sight of Matt, I saw him a couple miles away over by the LZ. I wondered if he had engine trouble or if he was just too cold. I was pretty comfortable so I kept on flying. I love this area!

I saw a couple deer and managed to get a few shots of them. Unfortunately it was so fast that I missed a couple camera settings and they didn’t come out real great…:

After I was done with the deer (couldn’t find them anymore) I decided to go see what was up with Matt. I got close to the LZ and I saw him with his stuff already loaded in his truck. I landed to talk for a bit. I turned off my motor higher up this time, made my approach, and had another crappy landing.. I slipped in the wet grass and wiped out! That’s 2 bad ones in a row! Oh well….

As I suspected, Matt landed because he was too cold. He wasn’t wearing waterproof shoes, and his feet were wet from the wet grass… so his feet were unbearably cold, as were his fingers.

We talked for a while and since I was quite comfortable I set up to fly again. My camera battery indicator was flashing, meaning I didn’t have many shots left to go… so I left the camera in the car this time. I took off and flew around for a few minutes when I spotted something in the field next to the runway. It was a huge bird eating something! I thought it was a buzzard or something. I swooped down pretty low and the bird didn’t fly away. He was using his wings to cover up his kill, and he was NOT going to give it up to this big bird!!! Sensing that this was possibly the photo opp of a lifetime, I quickly landed to head off on foot and shoot this scene. This time I landed with power, and my landing was perfect.

Unfortunately, I had left my big camera bag at home. I only had one lens and the one battery, which was almost dead. The lens was a 17-85mm. I really wished I had my 70-300mm telephoto so I could get good close-ups, but stupid me had to pack light… This was going to be a challenge with only 85mm of lens. I grabbed the camera and started stalking. I would shoot a few, move a little closer, shoot a few more, and repeat. As I got closer, I saw that it was a red-tailed hawk, not a buzzard. He was beautiful, big, and healthy looking. I would move while the bird was focused on his meal, then stop when he looked up. He looked at me several times, and I just kept creeping closer. I ended up probably 10 yards from him and got these spectacular shots:

My all-time favorite photo I’ve taken:

Those were the closest ones I got. The next time I crept forward he flew about 20 yards away and landed. We watched each other for a few, then I went ahead and got as close as I wanted to the kill (about 10 feet from it) and I went totally still. I was hoping that if I held real still that maybe he’d come back. He finally got tired of waiting for me to leave and he flew away:

What an incredible photo opp! I felt really privileged to get to sit there and photograph such a magnificent bird.

I headed back to my car and decided maybe I’d fly again. It was now noon, but it was still pretty cool and the wind hadn’t picked up much at all. I was hoping it wouldn’t be a repeat of the 1:00 flight for the reporter a couple weeks ago… that one was scary! Matt decided he’d try it, too. He was going to try a reverse launch, but that wasn’t working:

He was going to give up when I told him I was going to fly again no matter what. I went ahead and launched and told him the air was still OK. Matt launched and we flew around for a short while. It was getting a little thermally. They weren’t sharp bumps, but I was definitely feeling patches of major lift. Matt said he saw me take a small tip collapse. I never felt it, but it was enough to persuade Matt to land right away. I landed a couple minutes later. I landed with power again, and I had a nice landing.

I had a great time flying today. The hawk was the highlight of the day for sure. I won’t forget that for a long time!

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