How common are birdstrikes really?
Difficult to answer, but it will vary significantly and depend on the environment inside and outside the fence, volume of traffic, species, time of day/season/year and bird control measures in place. Each airfield is in effect its own micro environment and two airfields a few kilometers apart may have entirely different bird populations and problems to deal with.
If a bird is lodged between the two rearmost flap panels, will it be completely hidden from inspection when the flaps are retracted? (737)
Not sure but possibly
Since it hit the flap in landing config, it's obvious that it was sitting there for at least one turn around. How often will the flaps get inspected fully extended?
Can't recall if thats done on a 'daily', I'll try and find out.
I mentioned the exact location and that panel seemed undamaged, he shrugged and thanked for the info. Good for you, hopefully they got an engineer to have a look before departure. Don't be discouraged from reporting thiongs like that even if it means yodelling. I had a similar event, with a loose panel on the flap mech that buzzed and vibrated on flap deployment. I could feel it throught the floor as well as see and hear it through the window on approach. The senior told the F/O who wasnt interested, so I pressed the point, as I do have some limited knowledge and knew what I had seen needed to at least be looked at. The Capt came out of the cockpit and asked what the problem was, and I explained to him what I had seen felt and heard. I also showed him my airline pass and explained that i had some time on the hangar floor in the dim and distant past.
Ah he said, they worked on those flap tracks last night, 1st sector this was, thanked me and gave the F/O the filthiest look you could imagine! Capt had obviously read the tech log and had a handover from the engineers on the previous nights work!