Attacked by a gull. Severe damage

[Roland]

Today, while flying a mission my MP was attacked by a gull. IT happend before they were coming close. Buy never expected one would really attack. Anyway the bird
Succeeded in damaging 2 propellers, forcing gimbal and fan.
The bird itself must be serieus damaged as well as there are bloodspots on one arm and a feather on the camera.
I managed to get the MP home safely
I don't know of my spark would have survived this.

 

[SPark_South_Oz]

..
Now I know what happened to all those one legged seagulls !!
Alpine white shows up the blood well.

Glad you got it back ok, props are nothing to replace (if genuine are still available, you might have spares anyway), or get some nice MAS ones.
Hope your gimbal is ok though, they are a bit of a weakness of the M1s

Spark is tougher than the Mavic 1P / PP I feel, especially in the gimbal.

 

[Dragonfly Joe]

Glad you were able to land safety and without too much damage Roland. When I flew my P4+ birds would constantly be attracted to it. I don't know if it was its size or the tone of the drone. I would sometimes get frustrated and have to quit flying to avoid what you ran into today.

 

[dat1]

From the few species of bird trying to hurt our drones, the seagulls
seems the more motivated, they don't quit easy. And, unfortunately,
they are very dangerously "acrobatics".
It practice our Top Gun skills with evasive manœuvres on sport mode

 

[Spark 317]

Sport mode is your friend for a quick get away.

Glad you got it home from the flying rat attack.

 

[Sterreman Willie]

Wow! Serious stuff! As can be seen in this video, seagulls often attack my Sparkie as well, but luckily never struck yet! I'll be more scared now!

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[hiflyer]

The first time I flew around gulls I realized they were very serious. I don't mess with them at all. Ravens are federally protected for good reason and there are a lot of them where I live. I've had them pass my A2 from above in sport mode so out running one is not likely an option. I'd feel far worse for the Raven than my drone if I were to accidently hit one but they're so cagy I'm hoping that could never happen. On a recent flight a raven showed up directly in front of me and looking at a screen shot of the video it looks like the raven rolled inverted to avoid collision. It was much closer than I would have liked. Take a look ..doesn't it look inverted?

 

[SPark_South_Oz]

Take a look ..doesn't it look inverted?

It LOOKS inverted, but looking at the head, I think it's more of a downward wing moment, and it's using its airbrake !!
Hopefully acrobatic enough to keep missing your Spark.

 

[Gduk]

I am a Brit, but now living in Ontario, I have had hawks and vultures peeking at my Spark, and have actually had a Eagle once perched in the trees at the back of the garden, I can see them crane their neck for a peek sometimes when I fly, I always descend quickly, they own the sky, I am a pesky tourist.

 

[Gduk]

Wow! Serious stuff! As can be seen in this video, seagulls often attack my Sparkie as well, but luckily never struck yet! I'll be more scared now!

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It's the first time they have seen a ufo!

 

[hiflyer]

It LOOKS inverted, but looking at the head, I think it's more of a downward wing moment, and it's using its airbrake !!
Hopefully acrobatic enough to keep missing your Spark.

I don't know..it pops up so sudden. I've looked at it frame by frame and I can't tell. Those Ravens know my drone well. That's just over my back fence and they're always hanging around looking for a hand out Very very smart birds!

 

[RotorWash]

Yikes! It's amazing the MP survived the encounter. ? Gulls are always a big concern for me as well when flying.

 

[Mtntrogger]

There are sparrows near my house, they often seem to want to take my spark out ! They are very acrobatic and move super fast, they also always work in teams. They have grounded me more than once. I must have some footage somewhere of them attacking my spark. I feel more confident flying the p3s when there might be birds around. I think its size is a deterrent, but we do have huge birds here ! Bald and Golden Eagles as well as tons of other hawks. I would rather enjoy their majesty from the ground rather than the air.