Jumped into one of the clubs trusty 172s and was lined up on the runway ready for departure. After going through the vital actions and ''what ifs'' with my instructor, I opened the throttle and we lifted off at the usual 55 knots and began our climb out. At about 300ft just after flap retraction I noticed serveral birds crossing our path from left to right. Before I could mutter a word, my instructor had allready pushed down hard on the yoke but it was too late!
Several expletives later we levelled off at 500ft to check for damage, and all we saw was a slight bit of blood on the wing and some feathers around the pitot tube, engine Ts & Ps were fine and our engine was producing normal power allthough my instructor chose to return to the airfield for an inspection which suprised me as all of our systems seemed to be working normally.
Thinking about it now my instuctor made the right decision but the engine was performing perfectly and there appeared to be no structual damage or instrumentation anomalies so why did he choose to return to the field. He is the sort of instructor who is never usually bothered by anything (allthough VERY proffesional) and has seen it all having been a pilot for the last 55 years and having more than 25,000 hours in his log including ATPL.
Does anybody have any thoughts on this and would you return to the field or continue the flight after a bird strike?
