Eagle Attack (page 3 of 4)

Terrifying Attack

On each sortie, the eagles tucked their wings tight and plunged like spears at Moss’s canopy. It was terrifying. Every few seconds, one of the birds struck the glider. The first thing she did was switch off the vario, thinking its beeping might be disturbing the birds. Turning it off, however, meant that she wouldn’t be able to determine how quickly she was descending, but she had to take the chance.

At the next attack, Moss screamed back at the screeching eagle, hoping to frighten it off. She couldn’t. She’d try another gambit, a “big ears” maneuver—tugging on the lines to pull the tips of the wing down. When released, they’d make a loud crack. She waited for the next approach, yanked the lines in tight and, as the bird swooped—whack!—snapped the wing like a whip. It might as well have been a whisper for all the effect it had.

Moss’s hands were shaking now. She’d have to go to the limit and risk collapsing her canopy. She’d pull the wing in, to half its normal size, in order to snap it out with a really explosive sound. But if she pulled in just a little too much, it could send her into a fatal downward spiral.

She strained until the lines cut into her hands. The canopy came together like a thumb and forefinger pinching. Then as the eagles swept in—bam! It didn’t work. The birds kept attacking. Moss could see their talons fully exposed, each as long as a paring knife.

Moss then felt the glider go “mushy.” The eagles had damaged the structure. Rips in the top made the glider harder to control. It was thrashing wildly. Time was running out. She pulled on one of the two brake lines and leaned in, putting the glider into a corkscrew descent.

As Moss whirled downward, the eagles continued to dive at her. She tried another maneuver called a wing-over, swinging the glider side to side like a pendulum, trying to make herself a harder target to hit. But then one of the birds slammed into the back of her head, bounced off her helmet and became tangled in the glider’s lines. It was caught on its back, some five feet above her with its huge talons raking the air, screeching like a demon.

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