Duck police!

[izcain]

When we go to our areas one of the highlights for my 2 year old is that he can feed the ducks so people most of the time see us being nice to them while I get the boat ready. As long as they are not being harassed there is nothing they can do. Most people are interested more in the boat lol

[stadiumyamaha]

Cool thing about running in Texas is that someone has probably shot the ducks before I get to the pond.

[TheShaughnessy]

Makes me feel better to know other people have to go through this bull. I actually had a lady so intent on trying to get me to stop running with the ducks she called the cops on me. The prick actually issued me a ticket. took him over a half hour to issue me a ticket, he made me leave my flipped boat in the pond and said he didn't have time for me to cast my tennis ball out and bring it back in but it was perfectly ok for him to waste over an hour of my time. He issued me a ticket that stated it is unlawful to pollute the lake. When he handed it to me i actually laughed and said that's it? "Should be an easy one to fight. ( It was an electric boat lol) Two court trips later and the case was dropped. The city's attorney didn't even bother showing up to the second date. Man was i FURIOUS. Spent a bunch of time building my case. I had a picture of every sign in the park, none of which said you cant put an rc boat on the water. All of them say you cannot feed the ducks. I have several pictures of people feeding the ducks, even one that was taken 10 min after my ticket was issued, but they were not bothered at all. I was even lucky enough to find another pond about 30 min north that had signs from the city saying you are not allowed to put a boat in the water. They had i pic of a boat on the sign and everything. Once again the park I was at had no such sign, 13 signs posted with rules, regulations, and that you shouldn't feed the ducks, not one about rc boating.

The stupid c..t that called in on me also accused me of fishing, with a kids spider man pole and a tennis ball. Have you ever heard of using a tennis ball as bait? No hooks at all.

So sorry you had to deal with the bs. Some people are just so bitter you are having a good time they want to ruin it for you. They suck at life, are miserable excuses for people, and there is no help for them, I can only hope they rot in bed, dying a slow death with no one left to give a damn about em. I never have i felt so violated for doing nothing wrong.

Btw i always watch for ducks, I mean who wants to run their 300+ dollar boat into a duck and eff it up? no one.

alright i gotta stop i'm getting too mad about this.

[NativePaul]

It' up to you what you do with ducks/fish and how polite or rude you are with members of the public as long as your jepordising your own lakes, not mine.

But come on, running FE boats with people in the water is totally irresponsible, be they scuba divers, swimmers or canoeists, and even more so scuba divers as you wont see them till their head pops up at the surface and even if your boat is totally under control he wont be able to see where you will be in a couple of seconds from under water and may surface in your path with you not having time to avoid him, a 4lb Pltd/RTR at 50mph has 1048ft/lb of energy (near double that of a .357 magnum), and hitting a person at speed would be plenty to see his wife and kids wearing black for a while, even a 1lb mini boat at 30mph has 31ft/lb of energy (about the same as a powerfull hunting PCP airgun (well over double the legal limit over here) and still enough to kill or vegetablise a diver that surfaces in front of you.)

[Flying Scotsman]

I just last week had an incident with an older lady and ducks but thankfully managed to discuss it nicely with her and come to a comprimise .

I am always polite but if these old ducks will not stop telling me that the noise annoys their dogs and will not listen to reason, that is when I tell them to f:ck off and I never chase DUCKS though I would like to shoot some of them. It is aways old ducks that approach me..... I have never had any issue with men.

Douggie

[Basstronics]

Those divers have more to fear than an RC boat. Boats with electric trolling motors are allowed- no gas though. However the local fire department was out there in their dual outboard boat show boating around with divers in the water...

It' up to you what you do with ducks/fish and how polite or rude you are with members of the public as long as your jepordising your own lakes, not mine.

But come on, running FE boats with people in the water is totally irresponsible, be they scuba divers, swimmers or canoeists, and even more so scuba divers as you wont see them till their head pops up at the surface and even if your boat is totally under control he wont be able to see where you will be in a couple of seconds from under water and may surface in your path with you not having time to avoid him, a 4lb Pltd/RTR at 50mph has 1048ft/lb of energy (near double that of a .357 magnum), and hitting a person at speed would be plenty to see his wife and kids wearing black for a while, even a 1lb mini boat at 30mph has 31ft/lb of energy (about the same as a powerfull hunting PCP airgun (well over double the legal limit over here) and still enough to kill or vegetablise a diver that surfaces in front of you.)

[Jgg12002]

Divers should use a flag or they are asking for trouble. However I remember a tour boat running over a divers flag in Maine at the nubble lite. My findings have been to call the police and report the people harrasing you if you are in the clear and they usually loose there cool with the cops validating your innocents. Ofcourse when dealing with the public mileage may vary be carefull.
J.

[Chuck E Cheese]

wow...... everyone i run into at the ponds here think the boats are cool (and we run nitro there too, its a designated pond for rc boating but in a public park). only once in years have i run into a problem with anyone, it was a homeless guy that actually started throwing rocks at me (not my boat, me) as i was driving. i set my controler down and chased him across the park yelling that if i ever see him here again (or now for that matter) i was gona kick his ass. had he not been running i would have too. never saw the guy again.

[boater57]

I've had it too....lady walking her dog by the pond. It was barking like crazy and actually went in after my boat. According to her it was my fault for teasing her pet! Oh well, takes all kinds.

[JIM MARCUM]

I was born in California & raised in Southern CA: the land of fruits & nuts. Here in San Diego we have more tree huggers than trees. You guys should count your blessings (except for the guy who got a ticket!).

If you buzz a duck or other feathered fowl around here, or piss off people enough for them to complain to lake managers - YOU will lose that argument & likely get ALL FE boaters kicked off the lake. If you buzz or chase fowl you will be kicked off the lake. Run into or kill one of them, you won't get any sympathy when a Bambi eyed kid walks around with the dead bird in thier hands. I know, it happened to me at San Diego's only official RC boat site - the saltwater Mission Bay Model Boat Basin. My crime was hitting a coot with a gas hydro. This guy walked over to the pit area, dead coot in hands followed by 10 other "offended" nature lovers. "look what you have done!!!" he said, like I had just shot Mother Teresa.

After getting the FE bug, I searched for local lakes to run in as I won't run my FE boats in saltwater. Got kicked out of one lake cuz I violated the 5 MPH speed limit for full sized boats. That, & a complaint I was scaring the local fowl. I have finally found one lake to run FE in, but I realize if you harass the ducks, coots etc., or worse hit one, the Greenies will line up to file complaints with lake management. The results will not be favorable for FE boaters.

Bottom line is, DON'T run into a flock of birds at full throttle & risk hurting one just to get them outta your way. I slow down and try to gently shoo/ "herd" the birds out of the boats path, then a few full speed runs will usually keep the feathered obstacles outta the way & not irritate the Audubon Society (as much). When you run into people who are offended by your FE boats messing with their version of nature, try to be understanding, stressing "can't we all just get along" & share the lake? We MUST be good representatives of our sport and not act like jerks, even when dealing with jerks. If we act like we have a God given right to run our boats as we see fit - the Greenies be dammed, it is us who will seen as the bad guys. Resource managers are politicians who follow the path of least resistance, trust me. If you piss off other lake lovers with a hostile, arrogant attitude - or use your boat as a weapon to scare away birds - the lake manager will get so many complaints that they will be forced to take action against you. You also risk getting all FE boaters kicked out of the lake permanently.

Here in the desert that is SoCal, virtually all of our lakes are for storing drinking water & people are not allowed to swim in or even get your feet wet in our lakes. If you are lucky enough to live in a place where lakes provide recreation for all, God help your dumb ass if you hit a swimming/wading kid. We all need to drive our boats in a responsible manner, and leave a positive impression with others sharing our lakes. Drive like an idiot and try to piss people off, we all lose. JIM

[icelert]

Up here in the Seattle area our club was called upon to protect the fish at a lake. The lake has a public boat ramp that isn't opened until fishing season and the hatchery trout in the lake are usually planted one to four weeks beforehand. The problem was that cormorants would invade the lake and consume most or all of the fish because of a lack of human presence to stop them. They could easily consume all of the planted fish before fishing season even began! Residents on the lake were annoyed and at a loss to find a solution. The state game and wildlife dept.(ones who plant the fish) told the residents that they could harass the birds but not kill them.

One of the residents invited us to come over and run our boats around the lake from their dock. We didn't even come within a hundred yards of the cormorants but the sheer speed of the boats caused them to take flight and not come back. It worked out well for the residents of the lake and the fishing public and we gained a new location for our seasonal races.

When ever we are looking for new locations to race and the parks depts. state that they are concerned about endangering wildlife I tell them we are proactively protecting them!

[Drax21]

seriously. bread is terrible for ducks…. and youre the bad guy? i always tell people to go play in traffic when theyre bothering me. usually its fisherman. i run my boats wayyy away from their lines, but they insist the fish get scared!

I have the same problem here in the South West of England. 2 lakes taken over by fisherman, and one massive lake protected by wildlife conservation in my city alone. Their reasoning was that the fish are attracted to the sound of the boat and they get too close then get injured...lol boohoo

[TheShaughnessy]

Jim I agree with you all the way. In my case the lady said I forced the ducks off the lake. When they actually left the lake to go eat the bread people were feeding them. I will admit I wasn't fully composed and could have handled the situation in a more effective manner. As for people in the water... That should be a given. As far as the ticket goes nothing ultimately happened. I wasn't fined and nothing went on my record. Why? Cause I wasn't doing anything wrong.

[graill]

I am a member of every state patrol and local charity the police have in my area, i call this the proactive buddy system (with the police). I have pestered the Olympia police dept enough times and showed my boat there that i get passes on calls involving, "the mean man with the big boat", though that was two years ago, i maintain my make nice with the police so i do not have these problems, the people that complain do have problems, also just be sure you have your regs straight. I always enjoyed a unit coming down to the boat ramp, watching for a bit, chew the fat and waving goodbye, all the while the busybody is fuming.

[ozzie-crawl]

Only trouble i had was people walking over and grabbing a razor sharp prop on a live boat and giving it a spin.
As for bird life.I was running a DF26 one day and the sun was going down so had a large section of water that was reflecting the sun. on one pass threw this blind spot i heard my boat hit some thing then see a duck trying to run across the water with its ass in the air. kept an eye on the duck and it seemed ok. had some swans who made it there business to chase your boat but never hit one.