Fly Like An Eagle

[RgrF]

Not sure this is what Steve Miller had in mind but:

One bird flew more than five hours, covering more than 100 miles (160km), without flapping its wings.

10 foot wing span:

[cbelt3]

5 hours of the Condor ?
Awesome sailplane performance..
Apparently the Andes provide 'waves' of updraft that allow amazing flights. Like the one this dude and his copilot did in the sailplane in 2002. 3,009 KM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Ohlmann

[pdq]

You know, they’d be great birds, if they didn’t look so darn ugly above the neck.

Kidding (mostly).

[mrbigstuff]

Conservation of motion

[RgrF]

pdq wrote:
You know, they’d be great birds, if they didn’t look so darn ugly above the neck.

Kidding (mostly).

If they only looked a bit less like Mitch McConnell...

[RAMd®d]

5 hours of the Condor ?


LOL!

I wonder if that 100 miles is a somewhat linear distance between points A and B, or just elapsed distance as it circled some home territory.

If the former, that's really impressive, to be navigating currents sufficient to sustain flight, distance, and likely altitude.

Still, they pale in comparison to the greater albatrosses, with wingspans of ~12' and cover several hundred miles in a day, almost never flapping their wings.

[DeusxMac]

“Dustin Martin and Jonny Durand have broken the open distance hang gliding world record, flying circa 761km [472 miles] from Zapata in Texas on 3 July 2012.”

https://youtu.be/ZaGcGBSbFtI

[RgrF]

DeusxMac wrote:
“Dustin Martin and Jonny Durand have broken the open distance hang gliding world record, flying circa 761km [472 miles] from Zapata in Texas on 3 July 2012.”

https://youtu.be/ZaGcGBSbFtI

But could they sight, hone in on and dine on the way?

[Filliam H. Muffman]

There was a repeat of a PBS program that was on last night (SuperNature - Wild Flyers:
Masters of the Sky) that showed how the Albatross can reach speeds of 70 mph by surfing the wind currents just above, and behind the waves. Flying below the peaks of wave swells allows them to fly in pockets of calm air in a direction that looks like it is directly into a 25 mph prevailing breeze without having to flap their wings.

California condors ride thermals/updrafts up to 15,000 ft high and can fly (mostly gliding) 200 miles a day.

[DeusxMac]

RgrF wrote:
[quote=DeusxMac]
“Dustin Martin and Jonny Durand have broken the open distance hang gliding world record, flying circa 761km [472 miles] from Zapata in Texas on 3 July 2012.”

https://youtu.be/ZaGcGBSbFtI

But could they sight, hone in on and dine on the way?
I’m pretty sure condors and other vultures do NOT catch and eat while still in flight.