PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Anyone else had a bird strike in a light aircraft?
Old 20th Sep 2017, 09:31
  #42 (permalink)  
SATCOS WHIPPING BOY
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Here and there.
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I once hit a crow whilst riding my motorbike. Speed was far greater than some of those mentioned in earlier posts. It struck my right mirror, then my shoulder before ripping the visor from my passengers helmet (he happened to be glancing over my shoulder at the time).

I saw the crow sitting on the central barrier, it took off and started to fly across the motorway and would not have been a problem had it continued. However, for some bizarre reason it turned 90 degrees to follow the road and was batted up the backside by us.

My mirror was a write-off, I had a bruised shoulder that ached for weeks, and my passenger was traumatised along with all those who saw us at the next service station. The inside of his helmet was full of blood, guts and feathers and he looked like an extra from The Walking Dead :-)

It made us wonder what effect a bird of that size would have on something travelling at 450kts as opposed to our ~100kts.
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