Bird strike (nearly)

[muffin]

Some advice from the more experienced please.

Yesterday I returned to my pad in my R22 and went into the hover 4 feet above it ready to land. At that point two pheasants walked out of the long grass next to it and stood in the middle of the pad directly under me. With visions of the two of them taking off vertically into the rotor disk, I did not want to frighten them, so I did not pull collective and climb away. There was a wire fence about 4 feet high to my left, the hangar to my right, and some other buildings about 50 feet ahead, so a quick sideways escape was impossible. So I just sat there in the hover above them and did nothing as I could not think of anything better to do. Luckily after about 20 seconds they got fed up and carried on walking off the concrete and into the grass so I was able to land. It struck me afterwards that maybe they would not have been able to take off against the downwash anyway?

Was there any other sensible action that I could have taken? I am going to cut the grass short by the way.

[MD900 Explorer]

Muffin

You should'nt be afraid of the old pheasant, you can chase them around all day, and they won't fly into your rotor disk. Not in my experience anyway. They are quite entertaining when you chase them in an R22, the feathers almost being ripped off their back, but they just run around, like demented chickens :}

I would be more worried if you see a flock of lapwings though, they seem to love rotorblades, as i have found out. :ugh:

MD :=

[OverTq]

I've seen territorial pheasants walk under the disc of a hovering Puma trying to persuade me to bog off, so i don't think you need to worry - they just think you're trying to invade their space!

[puntosaurus]

There was a duck at Redhill that was convinced that the helicopters were relatives. He would come running along the ground hell for leather until he hit the downwash and then tumble end to end. Never tired of it, great amusement for a student pilot.

Pheasants are really very stupid, even by bird standards. Not their fault, they're bred for it so that barely more intelligent humans can blast them out of the sky without too much difficulty. I wouldn't put it past them to try a vertical takeoff into the rotor, but if they did and they made it, well that's natural selection.

[international hog driver]

I love having a bit of dyslexia….

You said Pheasants and I thought Peasants:}

I’m thinking what’s the problem, they never get out of your way when landing anywhere in Africa! And a good deal of downwash hopefully blows some of the stink away when you do set down.:E

(I don’t want to hijack a thread but in this case I have to)
We passed by a company aircraft landing at a remote site and as per usual they were encircled by Peasants when the coie asked what going on the Scandic lass replied she’s just giving the locals a blow job…. Laugh! I nearly shat! Thank god it was on the company frequency! :D :D :ok:

[Gerhardt]

I'm waiting for someone to point out that you'd be unlikely to outrun pheasants in an R22.

[topendtorque]

Muffin
someone needs to ask the obvious, you were landing into wind? is that the prevailing wind? which way do you normally depart? over the four foot high fence? In derbyshire is the DA so high that your below max AUW R22 cannot climb vertically?

If quickly maneuvering to the left from the hover in a machine with proper rotor rotation direction (sic) always lead with a bit of down-coll and throttle-on to save losing RPM, gyros and all that you know old boy.

apart from that yes pheasants, of the peacock variety at least, have about the best angle of climb I've ever seen. combine that with the crest of the incoming donwash as it bounces off the ground right inderneath its stupid wings and I guess you have every reason to be careful.

for sure as God made little green apples the darn thing would get to rotor height plus four feet and decide to become mesmerised with the hypnotic effect of your disk, not to mention the slight downward vacuum at that area.

note - if english pheasants are as brainless as guinea fowls you would have no worries, instead they would cue up to fly into your engine air intake for sure just as a joke.
You could boil down a hundred of them and wouldn't get half a cup of brains.

oh and don't forget the lessons taught you at elementary stage even though it may have been in a semi rigid head where you were instructed to always land with a full head of steam in case the dreaded wobbles were to beset you and the escape is - lift off.

[muffin]

Yes I had bags of vertical performance, as I only had about 6 gallons in and I was solo. My problem was not lack of the ability to climb out quickly, it was a nagging doubt as to whether the sudden increase in downwash and noise would cause my feathered friends to use their VTOL capbility, whereas they were obviously content to stay put for the moment anyway. I just did not want to do anything sudden, that's all.

[Gaseous]

Hi Muffin,
I live in the middle of a pheasant shoot and regularly have to shoo them away from my pad using the downwash. They dont seem to want to fly up but if I get one cornered against the fence I back away and land on the other side of the field until its gone. To be honest I am more afraid of some of the upper class twits with 12 bores who shoot the poor buggers! I have flown through a shoot in progress and they dont stop!!:mad:

[MD900 Explorer]

Gerhardt

I'm waiting for someone to point out that you'd be unlikely to outrun pheasants in an R22

Ok, this should be good, but have you ever tried to outrun a pheasant, or did it outrun you? Just exactly what is the VNE of a Pheasant running.:E

MD :D

[helicopter-redeye]

The VNE of a Pheasant is 22kts IAS.

But the ground effect in a hover should keep them away from the blades unless they have the zero G pack fitted.

h-r;)

[Ascend Charlie]

Pheasants aren't a problem - wait till you get an emu trying to be friendly on the helipad. It wasn't scared by the LongRanger's approach, and after touchdown, while the rotors were still spinning, it sauntered onto the pad, under the disc, and stuck its head in the window!

It was a pet emu, owned by a toystore proprietor, who also had squillions of Parma wallabies, lyre birds, peacocks and other critters on his hilltop botanic garden estate.