OK. It’s the only Skylane that I have ever flown. It was still a great treat!
You never have the camera rolling when the wild stuff happens. Here we are, on short final for Runway 17 on the longest cross country flight which I have been on this year. Suddenly, Todd Stanton states, “Go Around! Those are wild turkeys!”
So we flawlessly execute a Go Around, smoothly easing to the right of a gaggle of wild turkeys who had congregated on the left side of the 4,400-foot runway. We climbed out above the turkeys, causing them to flee in high-speed, gobble-gobble fashion.
Our next approach to Hannibal, Missouri, airport was less exciting. We touched down about the 1,000-foot marker and taxied on to the itinerate traffic ramp.
Aunt Elaine was sitting in her car near the terminal building and got a front-row seat to the turkey retreat. It could have been a fowl massacre!
Not that we want to see a flock of turkeys buzz-sawed into a cloud of fuzzy feathers, but our main concern was damaging the beautiful flying machine from 1962. Large birds can leave ugly dents in aluminum flying machines. Just ask Sully!