Posting for a friend who has a metal aircraft – but with fabric control surfaces. The a/c is currently parked outdoors and the local crows seem to have taken to eating the fabric. This is so bad that he is almost at the point where he has to buy a new rudder.
Any ideas how to stop this ?
Well, yes actually 
Feed the crows with something better – like coldpressed dry dogfood i.e. “Lupo Natural” – they love it.
@ Jacko – why does the guy with the gun hide his face?
try this one
This is obviously a very localised situation. I’ve had a fabric aeroplane in a hangar at the lake with no door for 14 years and no crow has ever looked at it. I know a Yak 52 that lived outside for ten years and the fabric was grand.
I agree with @Jacko … its time to introduce the look of Lead to the crow.
Crows are usually carnivorous and will eat anything moving (or any dead animal for that matter). Could there be something crawling inside the rudder?
Shotgun is about the most effective.
Locally with a cycle every few years in the spring time the corvids take to trying to peck out the putty on the windows. The only reasonably effective thing we’ve found is an ounce of lead.
why does the guy with the gun hide his face?
For camouflage. Crows have rather good eyesight, and they do see and avoid a human face from well beyond the range of a scattergun.
Apparently they are very intelligent and befriend people. Maybe a regular supply of birdfood a little out the way, along with a reflective balloon dangling on the rudder, would help?
Food would likely attract more crows. Who may see the rudder attacker, and copy it. Netting?
Why not feed them somewhere else? Meanwhile check if you have something inside (e.g. dead rats)
