Thank you for the complements F3g. I'm not sure, If I'm honest, that there's enough information to go on - although I'd venture that he was very lucky that the aileron circuit didn't jam!
Looking at the photos posted, clearly the lift distribution that side would have shifted inboard a bit. This will have caused the aeroplane to roll towards the damaged wing, BUT, it's a big turbo, which will have powerful roll and yaw trimmers that the pilot is used to using. I'm not sure I'd notice that I used an extra ±20% trimmer movement when trimming out unless specifically looking for it - and why should he?
It's very hard to tell from the photos how much aileron is missing, that would proabably be the main clue in "feel", but you don't tend to use more than very small inputs in a biggish aeroplane with Pax on board.
Visually, you can see from the photos that nothing is stuck down below the wing, plus with pilot and pax having their heads just below the wing, the view of the tip would be very poor due to geometry. There is a couple of feet of cable (strobe electrics?) dangling which would have streamed out of the trailing edge, that wouldn't be very visible. (Incidentally, if that was powered, and the aircraft was losing fuel in that area....)
Overall, I'm not entirely surprised that IF there was no aileron restriction it wasn't noticed. One might however reasonably question the airmanship of somebody who knowingly took a bird on take-off, and didn't simply do a circuit for a look at it on the ground. I hope that's what I'd have the presence of mind to do.
One observation BTW, I've seen a few post-birdstrike aeroplanes in my time, and every one of them had a fair bit of blood streaked around the impact site. I can't see any red on the photos at-all. This is of-course possible, unless something else was hit (mast, model aeroplane, tree?) that wouldn't leave such a telltale.
G
(Gaunty, the other good news for all inolved, apart from that they're all alive and the aeroplane is apparently repairable, is that UK, Eire and Channel Islands - the latter come under UK for most aeronautical purposes, operate "no blame" accident reporting. I can't see any charges being made by or against anybody in such a case.)
Last edited by Genghis the Engineer; 21st August 2005 at 08:08.