Expert Opinion
AIN Blog: Wanted: Birdbrains
Innate skills elude some allegedly trained pilots.

“Birdbrain…” It’s more an insult to our feathered brethren than to the human deemed short on intellect.

Even if you have never been fortunate enough to watch at close quarters as a peregrine falcon does the avian equivalent of a transonic dive, seen a bald eagle just yards away somehow propel itself back into the sky after topping its tanks on a carcass, marveled at a hummingbird sipping nectar or watched a hawk pursue its prey through the woods without poking an eye out and snapping a wing off, it’s clear that even the lowly starling or pigeon has mastered skills that eluded man until the dawn of the last century. Troublingly, as Matt Thurber’s special report on pilot training examines, these innate skills elude some allegedly trained pilots even to this day.

Nigel Moll
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