avoidance maneuver
JUST FOR FUN, let's assume that instead of a bird, it was a plane, without a transponder that the crew saw. what avoidance maneuver would you use if the bogey was one o'clock level?
I would pull up, hard.
Earlier I mentioned a bird avoidance maneuver and now I will tell you what I developed over the last 34 years. One advantage I had was learning to fly at an airport next to a bird sanctuary, with every approach over ''the duck pond''.
Birds seem to dive when approached by a plane, at least that is what I have personally observed. (if they are on the runway, they seem to takeoff, but I am speaking of an airborne encounter).
My maneuver is: simultaneously pull up, slightly bank and cover your face.
I know a guy who was hit in the face by a bird through the windscreen...he is ok now.
Pulling up changes the altitude of course, it also changes the pitch and the angle at which the bird might hit the engine or windscreen...banking may save one of the two engines if pulling up doesn't help. remember, all we have to do is miss by an inch! also pulling up slightly slows the plane giving just a slight change to the intercept solution.
My first instructor told me birds dive...I told my students the same thing and it seems to have worked...again from learning to fly near a bird sancturary, near the bay of san francisco.
remember too that the copilot has reported that he felt the plane would outclimb the birds...pulling up would have enhanced that.