Phantoms and Bee's

gecarey · Apr 7, 2014

Is it just me or are others noticing that when flying the Phantoms, any (honey)bees in the area seem to swarm it ?
I thought I have been seeing things the last few day flights, but today I had a huge swarm around my phantom.
Apparently a few bees decided to attack and guess who won... My phantom looks like a meat grinder now.
Just wondering...

ianwood · Apr 7, 2014

Someone posted this on rcgroups yesterday:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVMmvVaBlZw[/youtube]

Fink · Apr 7, 2014

I don't have any experience with bees, but being in Florida, my P2 looks like it came from a crime scene - mosquito blood and guts all over the props.

I keep a box of the Walgreens brand alcohol prep pads on-hand and use those to get the gunk off. If it were just guts, I'd use a normal cleaner, but anytime I see blood, I don't mess around.

Fink

Jaybee · Apr 7, 2014

gecarey said:
Is it just me or are others noticing that when flying the Phantoms, any (honey)bees in the area seem to swarm it ?
I thought I have been seeing things the last few day flights, but today I had a huge swarm around my phantom.
Apparently a few bees decided to attack and guess who won... My phantom looks like a meat grinder now.
Just wondering...

I just stumbled across this then searched here and found your thread.

Not sure if they caused the crash, but they were vexed either way

Must be something to do with the droning noise.

gecarey · Apr 7, 2014

OK,
So it is not just me..... Cool.... Now all we need to do is hear from the bee keepers of the world and how drones are killing the insect population.... That will be next..... Sarcasam installed.....

Jaybee · Apr 7, 2014

gecarey said:
OK,
So it is not just me..... Cool.... Now all we need to do is hear from the bee keepers of the world and how drones are killing the insect population.... That will be next..... Sarcasam installed.....

Ha, yeah! A friend of mine shoots macro stuff and kinda specialises in bees. We're hooking up on Weds to chat about quads funnily enough, so, out of interest, I'll see if he's got any ideas. I'm pretty sure it will be to do with the noise, perhaps they see it as an aggressive rival group / species.

Cr8tive_leo · Apr 7, 2014

Could be the rotors, bees might think it's an invading swarm of adult bees. Emf and the sound of props all can contribute to it. Hives rely partially on it for navigation and other stuff... Or they could think its a new hive... Neat though.

goldfishrock · Apr 8, 2014

gecarey said:
Is it just me or are others noticing that when flying the Phantoms, any (honey)bees in the area seem to swarm it ?

Mine attracted something a little bigger.... and was knocked out of the sky by a Rook! Think I must have disturbed it nesting.

Gizmo3000 · Apr 8, 2014

Funny,. just yesterday I was flying at my brothers ranch, which some beekeepers keep a hive on his property.
I stayed far away from it, but one guy definitely made a bee-line for me!

(with my F450, which has far less buzz than my Phantom)

Jaybee · Apr 8, 2014

Gizmo3000 said:
Funny,. just yesterday I was flying at my brothers ranch, which some beekeepers keep a hive on his property.
I stayed far away from it, but one guy definitely made a bee-line for me!
(with my F450, which has far less buzz than my Phantom)

Great pic ; )

Seahorse · Apr 8, 2014

I have no doubt it is the sound, everyone who hears a Phantom mentions the bee droning noise...

GMANNZ · Apr 8, 2014

Seahorse said:
I have no doubt it is the sound, everyone who hears a Phantom mentions the bee droning noise...

yeah I wondered this myself ..... everytime I fly in park across the valley I end up coming home and wiping blood off my P2V props and body etc from all the "attackers" .... sort of feel bad as I am real animal lover type that picks up bees and moves them out of the way when walking along ... :roll:

Shrimpfarmer · Apr 8, 2014

I have not witnessed this yet but I am glad its been posted. I for one will not fly if I can see beehives at the flying site. Its not fair on the keepers as I imagine thousands could be killed if they mob it.

Might be a good idea to land it away from you if its under heavy attack. I assume they would get bored as soon as the motors are shut down.

sohail99 · Apr 8, 2014

I was out the other day to investigate a group of eagles flying high! (high altitude bird watching! lol)

One of he eagles found my phantom interesting and followed it down to the landing area and was constantly circling it!

I had to scare the eagle away with the phantom as I was afraid, if it attempted to attack the phantom, it would injure both the phantom as well as the eagle!
It was kinda scary lol :shock:

ianwood · Apr 8, 2014

sohail99 said:
I was out the other day to investigate a group of eagles flying high! (high altitude bird watching! lol)

One of he eagles found my phantom interesting and followed it down to the landing area and was constantly circling it!

I had to scare the eagle away with the phantom as I was afraid, if it attempted to attack the phantom, it would injure both the phantom as well as the eagle!
It was kinda scary lol :shock:

Bids of prey don't seem to want to get too close. They definitely are curious but I haven't seen any attack yet. At least my experience with hawks and eagles has been the case. Sometimes the hawks look like they're flirting. They will swoop by gracefully keeping a decent distance and then veer away casually.

Swallows and swifts are a different matter. Viscious, dexterous and suicidal. I don't think I've ever taken a hit but they get so close at such a high rate of speed that one day I will be cleaning up pieces of Phantom and a dead smiling swallow at some point.

Haven't encountered bees yet but something tells me I will. Quite a few bee reports just this week it seems. Tis the season.

Jabtyler · Apr 8, 2014

Hey guys, that is my video on the first page.
those were def not bees, I realized they were all over the tree I was under and they were wasps or yellow jackets. I think only 1 or 2 went into the props judging by the carnage. I will stay away from that tree from now on, they do not need me making them angry as people are walking by and get the brunt of the attack, on second thought maybe I'll send people I don't like there and stir them up. (Evil laugh)

jondrew · Apr 8, 2014

Fink said:
I don't have any experience with bees, but being in Florida, my P2 looks like it came from a crime scene - mosquito blood and guts all over the props.

I keep a box of the Walgreens brand alcohol prep pads on-hand and use those to get the gunk off. If it were just guts, I'd use a normal cleaner, but anytime I see blood, I don't mess around.

Fink

Guess I need to plan a flying hiatus for the impending love bug season