Wedge tailed eagle attacks!

The last couple days have been good XC flying days.  Or, as they say here, it's been "on like a train".

Yesterday, after hiking up the hill, I flew about 63 km toward Bingara (Leonardo Link). The day was fun, with a moderate inversion between 1100 and 1400 m or so that made flying tricky (it's not obvious on the track log, but it sure was obvious while flying not just from the haze but the weakening of thermals through that region). I launched relatively late at around 1:30pm and simply followed the highway until it started getting late at which point a confluence of decisions ended up with me dirting, the most important of which was the worry that I would be standing on the roadside until it was dark. After the expected hour of standing on the side of the road eating muesli bars and drinking water, along comes a familiar looking truck. Soon enough I realize it's the same bloke who picked me up a couple weeks ago! I helped him unload a pallet of flour at a bakery and he dropped me off right outside the pub I am staying at.  My car was still at the bottom of the hill, only a 2-3 hour walk away (any walk in the Australian sun requires preparation in terms of sunscreen and water), luckily my magic thumb got me there pretty quick too the next day with only a few kilometers of trudging.

A wedge tailed eagle.
This photo is by Fir0002/flagstaffotos
and is released under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Today looked like it was going to overdevelop, so we pushed to launch relatively early, and I had to pull out my favorite sort of launch: the nil wind reverse. Soon enough I was up and out under some almost Cumulus Congestus (it never did end up raining). A repeat to yesterday, I headed with the wind along the main highway trying to catch another pilot who had launched quite awhile before me. Zoom zoom at speedbar under the clouds and I still couldn't catch the guy. I used my new method of launching in my light gloves and putting on my heavy gloves on the first glide if it is cold enough. Worked well! I reached the Tarpoly Sink Hole soon enough and drifted across it slowly only to find that my weak tail wind was now had a weak head wind, which I figured could be used to get me back to the farm. So, I turned around and headed back.  It turned out this was only a local effect, probably due to the way the valleys split here.

On the way flying back to the farm, I watched a couple wedge tail eagles play fighting (I think) above me.  They are probably a mated pair and the same ones I've flown with a couple times already.  Soon enough they noticed me too and swooped down to play.  They were riled up from play fighting and decided to give it a go with me too, which involved some diving and swooping at my wing with talons outstretched.  I used the technique I last saw a pilot use to fend them off which involved flapping the brakes on my wing just before the wedgie would hit it and the wedgie would then veer off (I have no idea why it works, but they balk just when you flap the brakes). This worked for awhile, but I figured I needed to get creative to get away.  Last time I spiraled down, but the timing wasn't right for that thought as it seemed that starting a turn to enter the spiral would cause my wing to get even closer to where the wedgie was. Instead, I spun the glider on the side the wedgie was coming from and exited to a full stall (I think I mentioned before in this blog that I feel more confident stalling my wing than doing proper spin exits --- this being a new glider I didn't even consider trying a proper spin exit.  Big hole in my piloting skills and evidently there is no place where they have flying over a lake / SIV in all of Australia for me to work on it!).  The glider didn't try and kill me: I think it behaved rather nicely.  Off I flew figuring that would end the war.  Not so!  Since I had now awoken the acro-monster, my next avoidance maneuver was to start big wingovers.  After exiting with an almost loop one of the wedgies came right back.  Finally, an asymmetric spiral figuring if I ended up landing at least the wedgie would probably leave me alone.  Finally success! The remaining wedgie who had been harassing me was nowhere to be seen.  With very little height remaining, I started floating across the valley in some convenient light lift to go and land near the road when the wedgie reappeared from above and with a final squawk and dive dug a talon into the left topside of my wing.  That was it and off she went, I guess she figured I wasn't going to be tasty (no resistance when she tore into my wing) or she had won the play fight. Looking up, I could see bright spots in the shape of a talon and luckily no big rips so I headed into land, breaking my rule number one: do not land midday! I ended up attempting a PLF (parachute landing fall; ankles, knees together, tuck in your arms and roll when you land) because the field was super bubbly.  It worked much better than my last attempt which was little more than a face-plant.

A gift from a wedge tailed eagle.

I didn't have to take a first aid course
to get my paragliding license for no
reason!  I think an OK job of
applying band-aids to my wing.

Got picked up almost right away by the same person who picked up the pilot who had launched before me --- I guess she figured two paraglider pilots in a car can't be worse than one.  A quick ride back and I got some white repair tape (I only have yellow tape in my emergency kit) from the local instructor, who mentioned that I probably made too much noise and that might have set off the eagle.  A bit of repair work and it was time for the landing beers and some retelling of my adventures.  The repairs will be tested tomorrow in what should be great XC conditions.  There are several stories on the internet about wedgie attacks on paragliders.  Here's a nice link to a youtube video of an attack in progress!  I feel lucky in comparison with that pilot.