# Cheepie birds and packer bugs **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 5, 2014, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheepie-birds-and-packer-bugs/690153 "2014-06-05T22:02:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheepie-birds-and-packer-bugs/690153/1 "2014-06-05T22:02:34Z")
In [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=723668) I mention tiny birds that flit about the back yard and chirp merrily. I don’t know what they are, so I call them ‘cheepie birds’. I was just thinking about airplanes as I [del]often do[/del]… [del]frequently do[/del]… constantly do, and I remembered my ground school instructor. (I took ground school at a community college.) He stressed the importance of checking the pitot tube for debris, because there were ‘packer bugs’ in the area that filled the opening with mud. I never saw one, nor saw an impacted pitot tube, but I assumed they were some kind of small wasp. But anyway… ‘cheepie birds’ and ‘packer bugs’. Names for things whose names I don’t know. What do you call specific things you don’t know? ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheepie-birds-and-packer-bugs/690153/2 "2014-06-05T23:12:38Z")
Legion. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheepie-birds-and-packer-bugs/690153/3 "2014-06-05T23:41:18Z")
My alternate name for “cheepie birds” is “LBBs”: Little Brown Birds. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheepie-birds-and-packer-bugs/690153/4 "2014-06-05T23:46:39Z")
We call them “The Great American French Fry Bird”. Because you always see them in parking lots and by outdoor tables and such. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheepie-birds-and-packer-bugs/690153/5 "2014-06-06T00:09:23Z")
Those are LBTBs: “Little Brown Tweety Birds”. In reality in the US they’re usually some flavor of sparrow. But they’re LBTBs to me. I used to live in an area that had lots of 4-6" lizards. Cute little things. Their unique habit was to sit in one spot while repeatedly raising and lowering their upper body using their forelimbs. AKA “push-up lizards.” I have no clue why they do that. Looks hot for the girl-lizards I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheepie-birds-and-packer-bugs/690153/6 "2014-06-06T02:18:02Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I was just thinking about airplanes as I [del]often do[/del]… [del]frequently do[/del]… constantly do, and I remembered my ground school instructor. (I took ground school at a community college.) He stressed the importance of checking the pitot tube for debris, because there were ‘packer bugs’ in the area that filled the opening with mud. I never saw one, nor saw an impacted pitot tube, but I assumed they were some kind of small wasp. Your ground school instructor didn’t also stress the importance of [keeping your pitot tube covered when not in use](http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/37348192.jpg)? (Photo.) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheepie-birds-and-packer-bugs/690153/7 "2014-06-06T07:33:50Z")
I’ve heard the term ‘General Purpose’ used in this sort of context - General Purpose birds, or flies, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheepie-birds-and-packer-bugs/690153/8 "2014-06-06T13:07:30Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Your ground school instructor didn’t also stress the importance of [keeping your pitot tube covered when not in use](http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/37348192.jpg)? (Photo.) It was mentioned. If he stressed it, I didn’t catch it because dad always covered his pitot tubes. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > I used to live in an area that had lots of 4-6" lizards. Cute little things. Their unique habit was to sit in one spot while repeatedly raising and lowering their upper body using their forelimbs. AKA “push-up lizards.” I have no clue why they do that. Looks hot for the girl-lizards I suppose. ‘Look how many push-ups I can do!’ 😛 I’d probably call them ‘push-up lizards’ too. I used to use caddis nymphs as trout bait when I was a kid. They lived in little cylinders they made out of large sand grains, so I called them ‘rock rollers’. Turns out, they’re actually known as rock rollers. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheepie-birds-and-packer-bugs/690153/9 "2014-06-06T13:47:17Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Your ground school instructor didn’t also stress the importance of [keeping your pitot tube covered when not in use](http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/37348192.jpg)? (Photo.) The stall warning “system” on a C-150 was a simple plastic horn (akin to the traditional kid’s bike horn with the red squeeze ball to blow it.) In Cessna’s case the horn was plumbed to a 1/2" x 3/4" hole in the leading edge of the wing. As long as airflow was normal the pressure blew through the horn in the direction which didn’t stimulate the reed & the horn was silent. Under near-stall conditions the flow would reverse, the reed would vibrate & the horn would sound. I worked a write-up once that the stall warning horn wasn’t working. Sure enough, the inlet screen had been breached and the opening behind it was now a wasp’s nest. We didn’t operate in an insect-heavy part of the country and never had any issues with pitot intrusion despite not using covers. Birds’ nests in cooling ducts or on top of cylinder banks was much more our issue.