News - Sonja Englert Engineering

December 2025

I was getting the Pulsar ready for a flight on the ramp at the airport when I heard “whoosh” right above my head. I looked up and saw a bird flying at very high speed, faster than a car on the highway, zooming away from me at low level diagonally across the runway. It had its wings tucked two thirds to its body, gliding with only some small maneuvering movements parallel to the ground. On the other side, it pulled up briefly to about 15 ft and hit another bird in a small explosion of feathers, which flew off to all sides glittering in the sun like miniature fireworks. A red-tailed hawk which had been perched on a tree close by flew up, disturbed by the intruder on his territory, crying angrily. It looked like a lumbering DC-3 next to a sleek Spitfire. The falcon or hawk (?) now had to flap his wings, turned right about 90 degrees to his original flight path and disappeared down the hill with his meal.

It must have dived down behind me to gain his attack speed, used me as sort of cover on the otherwise empty ramp, before reaching the unlucky smaller bird which probably had no idea what hit it. The raptor was a bit smaller than the red-tailed hawk and seen from behind had gray wings with a darker pattern on the upper surface. I don’t know what species it was, it could have been a peregrine falcon.

I often see a Sparrow Hawk perched on a pole next to the road to the airport, but the one I saw in flight was a bit larger than the tiny Sparrow Hawk.

I then went for a flight myself, on what was one of very few beautiful days in the last two unusual months of fog and rain. The fog was still lingering in some places.