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Old 3rd May 2008, 20:43
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Just had my first one today after 130 hours.

A seagull impacting the leading edge of the right wing of a PA28-161, just between the outer two ribs. Happened on something like 200' final to land and I must've been doing about 70-75 knots at the time. Aircraft felt fine so I continued to land. Damage is a severely dented leading edge (about 10 cm deep, 30 cm across) with the metal torn away over something like 7 cm over the rib, and something like 7 rivets torn loose.

A lot of damage from a bird weighing less than a kilo, at relatively low speed. Gave me a new appreciation for the damage they can do when they hit the windscreen.

Strangely enough, I only heard it. Did not feel a thing through the fuselage.

To be honest, the worst thing about it all is the paperwork. This is a reportable incident so every relevant bit of paper needed to be copied and faxed to the police - 16 pages and counting.
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