Originally Posted by
Sir Niall Dementia
And for those who doubt a goose could down a helicopter, how about the Blackhawk in January 2014 in Cley, Norfolk, UK, But I really don't believe either geeese, mute swans or anything else at the moment.
SND
Re Birdstrikes a good few years back I did some extensive studies and stats analysis on bird strikes for a FW commercial airline.
Most strikes high 90%'s occurred in daylight/twilight hours, night strikes were very rare.
If I recall the numbers correctly, most impacts likely 2/3rds were beneath 3-400ft height.
I can't recall any reports of a strike that wasn't some form of head on collision, be it airframe/nose/screen/leading edges, engines and ingestions into engines.
Assuming a direct tail rotor strike, I'd be very surprised if a bird (singular) faced with a relatively slowly manoeuvring helicopter in its path, anticols flashing, high noise and downdrafts etc didn't take its own avoiding action, i.e turn away from the helicopter, as most species do react negatively to various forms of pyrotechnics and noise.
I'd anticipate a hovering, or slow moving helicopter to be producing enough downward turbulence and rotor wash to potentially protect it from a bird strike?