This photograph was uploaded to r/shittyaskflying , a subreddit committed to asking foolish inquiries and giving silly solutions. In this case, the photo is enough to make one question what’s going on.
The caption checks out:
Why all the wheel chocks? Strong winds?
The solutions are predictably amusing.
No_Mathematician 2527 writes:
Stops porcupine from chewing the tires. Why do porcupines consume tires? Since they are incredibly #$ @% ing stupid, that’s why.
Foolish #$ @% ing mind dead porcupines. I needed to walk 2 #$ @% ing days to get out of there. And for what? What did it complete?
Little #$ @% emergency room ate my tires and right away passed away like 20 feet away. Simply a big #$ @% you I expect. Porcupines can #$ @% right off. Silly needle rat.
And the ideal feedback from BabyBasher 1776
That’s your fault for making use of such scrumptious tires.
schenkzoola has a various concept.
Bird cages. Maintains the plane from leaving
Yet garbagekr implies it’s an anti-theft gadget:
Flying in Romania resemble …
Vegetable-Rooster- 50 may be Romanian:
We can still take your prop.
rover_G appears a little bit ashamed:
Chastity cages to … you understand …
And theogmichaelscott may be a smidgen overwhelmed:
Chock cages? My sweetheart was asking if I would certainly wear one for her. Idk what shes on around.
Yet redit-fan thinks the pilot remains in problem:
Unpaid vehicle parking tickets
StarzRout assumes the plane might be the one in difficulty:
Mafia simply went to obtain the concrete to pour before chucking this sucker right into the river.
Lastly, I think jjs 3 _ 1 has the right of it:
That is a Cessna; they need to cage them, or they desert and get intoxicated!
Naturally, I could not relax till I had tracked the picture to its resource. It was originally posted in 2023 by Uretsky Air Travel, a Facebook page and Instagram account by B 767 pilot and air travel digital photographer Brian Uretsky, that discussed that he had actually obtained it from South African air travel lover raegen.ed.
If you want to send your own images for next Sunday, send me a message!
The person that took the picture gets on LinkedIn as a Commercial Student Pilot and a trip dispatcher for a South African airline company; plainly the local wildlife didn’t terrify them away from air travel.
On Instagram, dave_o 3 recognises the airplane:
I flew this airplane in South Africa, it’s ZS-DGH. It’s a bush aircraft that is left overnight on unfenced landing strips in the Sabi Sands. That landing field is FAUS. The cages quit the hyenas from chewing the brake lines. Obviously they find them tasty.
So our top comment wasn’t away, other than that no person in South Africa seems all that stressed regarding porcupines. However I discovered that in the US, people actually do cover their cars and trucks in poultry cord to protect the tyres from porcupines!
Those Damn Porcupines Will Eat Anything :
The most significant shock to me regarding porcupine cravings was their love for tires and the plastic insulation that covered cables. I heard several stories concerning walkers and seekers that had actually driven way out in the shrub, leaving their vehicles parked and alone for a number of days, as they ventured off right into the wilderness. Days later on, when they returned, they attempted unsuccessfully to start their vehicles, just to discover that porcupines had chewed out the car’s electrical wiring or tires.
These occasions constantly finished in a very long and unforeseen hike back to people for assistance.
I searched for an instance of porcupines triggering airplane damage yet only located this situation in the NTSB data source :
Throughout a telephone interview with the NTSB detective in charge on the early morning of June 13, 1993, the pilot reported that he made several low passes over the lake to inspect the condition of the ice and that on among the passes he jumped one of the main landing gear tires on the ice. Throughout the last 100 feet of the touchdown rollout, the primary touchdown equipment tires started to cut a groove in the ice and the airplane began to sink. The pilot approximated the plane was immersed in roughly 30 feet of water.
The lake in question is Porcupine Lake in Alaska, although it certain feels like the airplane was the one doing the damages.
Wildlifehelp.org clarifies why this might affect automobiles but not aircrafts:
Porcupines are attracted to anything salty. So winter months roadway salt can attract them to automobile components and rubber, consisting of brake lines, fuel lines, tires, half-shaft boots, and so on. Extensively hose pipe off or clean down lorries and vehicle parts to get rid of collected salt. Preferably, maintain lorries in a garage or erect a short-lived fencing around cars.
Although salt is frequently made use of on roadways, it is not used on paths, as a result of salt’s corrosive effect on aluminium. Sand or de-icing chemicals are utilized rather to avoid the threat of damage to the aircraft parts and engines.
In fact, Pittsburgh International Airport terminal has a video on how they obtain the sand for their winter months operations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s 38 ejhVMXbk
Of course, this means that airplanes are a great deal less delicious than cars and trucks, at the very least if you are a porcupine.
Hyenas, on the other hand, are understood to chew on the rubber, much like canines eat on shoes. jc 717 published a picture of thorns utilized to safeguard an airplane.
Once upon a time in a far area called Limpopo Lipadi, there arrived a Cessna 210 and its pilot. Two American guests were on their initial trip to Africa, and had a very early flight to an additional far location the adhering to early morning.
After a night of talking around the fire and extremely fired up guests, the early morning quickly dawned.
A bumpy drive to the airstrip and some more fired up chatter passed prior to ultimately arriving, only to turn both happy Americans right into two very pissed off Americans.
Both major equipment tires had actually been completely torn to shreds, and the perpetrators tracks were still fresh in the sand. Hyenas are assholes.
I’m bad at informing tales. But there it is.
Which mosts likely to show that porcupines were unfairly reviled in the initial comment! As an apology to any kind of porcupine interested in air travel who may feel upset at being called a needle rat, I would like to share the tale of Mackenzie the porcupine.
The tale begins with a porcupine uncovering an airplane wreck near Mackenzie, in northern British Columbia, Canada. She assumed she had herself a comfy new home and relocated, munching on the seats and typically feeling rather delighted with herself.
Regrettably for Mackenzie, the wreck was recent. To her shock and horror, a helicopter showed up and airlifted the damaged aircraft from the remote area with her aboard. Aircraft and porcupine were then transferred by boat and trailer to a salvage yard over 800 kilometres away. At the backyard, workers discovered the porcupine hiding under the pilot’s seat and called Canada’s Interior Wild animals Recovery Society.
Never a boring moment at Inside Wild animals!
We were asked to remove a young women porcupine from an airplane wreck. It had ridden throughout wreck recovery and was unintentionally delivered by helicopter, boat and trailer from Mackenzie right to Kelowna!
Unlike marmots, who are recognized to drawback vehicle rides in BC– a “porcupine in an aircraft” was a various displacement tale.
This daring young pet was hidden listed below the pilot’s seat and started jabbing its head out when employees of a regional wreck recuperation business were mosting likely to discharge the wreck from their flat deck trailer in Kelowna.
Normally we do not have adequate sources to record wild animals ourselves, instead we ask to be contacted prior to we provide directions on exactly how and when the finder can securely catch/trap and transport wild animals in demand to us. In this instance nevertheless, the animal was hundreds of kilometres away from its home and the opportunity of loosing it amongst a lot of airplane components in a commercial yard where it would certainly be dizzy, locate absolutely nothing to consume and crawl right into one more equipment or vehicle was rather real, the employees been afraid. It was extremely scared and really did not make any kind of attempts to leave its hiding spot of the previous 3 days. They tried to coax and entice it out as soon as they recognized their blind passenger, yet to no avail. That’s when the group at Interior Wildlife was asked to help. With the help of our supporting veterinarian we gently sedated the porcupine by means of intramuscular injection into the rear end (the only place we can get to it was through the little plane window). We after that pulled it out gently by the front arms a few mins later, no quills dropped. Safe for the humans involved and the animal itself.
A pleasant pilot offered to fly her back home to Mackenzie BC in a Cessna 172 loaned for the porcupine’s journey home. The petroleum expenses were covered by community contributions. The pilot said on social media sites that the Cessna had far better array than his airplane and later on said that the 2, 000 kilometre round trip was the longest day of flying he ‘d ever before had. When back at the beginning, she was securely released right into the forest by wild animals employees:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D 9 jSh0LSpA
However far more intriguing, I assumed, was this Instagram message by the pilot with video from the flight. Unfortunately, Instagram installs do not always work well so I’m mosting likely to ask you to click with to view this one on bigtotherescue’s Insta
I especially like just how the pilot tells the controller that they have priceless cargo aboard.
I’m not sure how it got to Friday evening when all I was doing read a foolish article on Reddit, however in some cases that is how it goes. I hope you enjoyed going down this rabbit opening with me!