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Old 27th Jan 2009, 21:57
  #1275 (permalink)  
bubbers44
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
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Actually over the years flying into Tegucigalpa, Honduras we got quite good at evading turkey buzzards by the thousands in huge flocks sometimes and individually. With a few seconds notice we have avoided multiple flocks and been pretty successful at missing them. Pointing them out to the pilot flying in time to to avoid them is the key. If you wait until they are filling up your windscreen it is too late. At 200 knots which was about our initial speed entering the valley we had the best maneuverability but even down below 150 knots dirty in the B757 we did a pretty good job of missing them. Every once in a while we would get a bird strike on one of our aircraft but most were prevented by maneuvering clear of them. True story. We were totally VMC then so attention was concentrated on staying clear of them starting when they were small dots, not when they were big birds in the windscreen. After about 600 approaches into that valley of birds the only one we hit was on departure at 500 ft when we turned right to avoid and the bird followed us into my windscreen brow.
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