How many bird strikes have you had?
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
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An ex-colleague and friend of mine (we joined the RAF on the same day some thirty one years ago), was co-pilot on an RAF Nimrod that ran into a flock of seagulls on takeoff some years ago, as it took off for an Atlantic patrol. They found the remains of over 70 birds on the runway. This didn't include the ones which went down the engines, destroying three of the four. Unfortunately the two pilots didn't survive because the cockpit was destroyed, due to the aircraft being put down in the trees off the end of the runway; however the rest of the crew did.
Two birdstrikes within my first 500 or so hours, then none since. One in a pawnee, a hawk popped up on short final and hit right at the intersection of the strut & jury strut. Was a little messy, no damage to the pawnee. One in a pitts, on short final similar situation with a turkey buzzard. Hit the flying wires about where they cross each other. Slice 'em, dice 'em. No damage to the pitts and very little mess.
I have flown close with some soaring birds in gliders, without hitting them. This is even though they don't always follow the rules about thermalling in the same direction as the established traffic.
-- IFMU
I have flown close with some soaring birds in gliders, without hitting them. This is even though they don't always follow the rules about thermalling in the same direction as the established traffic.
-- IFMU
Join Date: Oct 1999
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Yesterday, bimbling along in the Chipmunk somewhere south of Nantwich at about 2,000 feet a black dot rapidly resolved into a thermalling buzzard... magnificent sight, wings outstretched, he turned to look at the approaching noisy flying machine, gave me an 'eyes roll' look, and dived under the Chippy's left wing.
Not many 'twitchers' get to see birds in their natural environment as we do. They look quite different to the way they look from the ground... far more majestic.
Birdstrike? Just once, taking off in that same Chippy a junior black-headed gull came through the prop. No damage to the aeroplane, but the bird became a no-headed gull.
Not many 'twitchers' get to see birds in their natural environment as we do. They look quite different to the way they look from the ground... far more majestic.
Birdstrike? Just once, taking off in that same Chippy a junior black-headed gull came through the prop. No damage to the aeroplane, but the bird became a no-headed gull.
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Dundee, Scotland
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3 in 5,000 hours. One in a C152, 2 Oyster Catchers hit the wheels, one unidentified in a Saab (just blood along the side) and one - very lucky - on a night takeoff from Stornoway in a Saab 340. One Canada goose found embedded in the underside and TWELVE found dead on the runway 
. Very close one, that.
. Very close one, that.
Join Date: Oct 2003
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Two bird strikes in two days got to be a bit willing!
From memoirs
Birds caused me some problems at Butterworth in Malaya. I wanted to test the modified ECS (environmental control system) at low altitude and high speed. Whilst at about 400 kts at 200 ft over the sea off the island of Penang, I noticed a little black spot grow rapidly in size directly along the aircraft flight path. I only had time to pull a little on the stick before the bird impacted with a big thump on the aircraft's nose. I pulled up losing speed trying to assess damage. At the speed even a small bird could do considerable damage and this one had been fairly large. We returned immediately to land at Butterworth.
Fortunately, the bird had impacted along one edge of the forward bomb aimer's window. This was armoured glass and had taken most of the shock. A deep gouge had been made in the perspex surrounding the glass window. We were lucky.
A few days later I had the test Canberra fuel load at maximum when I started a take-off at dusk from the 8,000 ft runway at Butterworth. As we accelerated towards lift-off, I saw a very dense flock of small birds rise up off the runway some 600 feet away. Appearing like a small black cloud the birds flew upwards and I thought that I would probably miss most of them if I held down, on or close to, the runway. But the black cloud, disturbed by my approach, apparently decided to try to go back to ground.
I had now lifted off and had a split second to decide whether to put the wheels back on the runway and abort the take off. But there was hardly enough runway left in which to stop the heavy aircraft. Were I to fly through the birds, I would likely lose both engines. What a predicament! Instinctively, I pulled back hard on the controls in an attempt to rise above the main concentration of birds. The aircraft shuddered, at the low speed, as I felt for the limits of the lift from the wings. This occurs just before wing stall which was to be avoided at all costs.
The navigator, behind me, was unable to see forward so I advised him and the tower by calling out,"Avoiding birds" as I tried to also turn a little to the right. The black cloud rapidly became a multitude of dots as I squashed into the outer fringes. There was a staccato of little bangs and the left engine wound down a few RPM before recovering. We had made it. I pulled a substantial reduction in power on both engines in case there was damage, left the undercarriage down and flew a tight circuit to return to the runway as soon as possible. On the landing run, I could see dead and injured birds scattered on the runway.
There was evidence of birds having hit the engine compressor guide vanes and many birds and pieces were pulled from the undercarriage and wheel wells. We had not been fast enough for the small birds to have damaged the aircraft skin. The fire crew picked up 58 birds from the runway.
From memoirs
Birds caused me some problems at Butterworth in Malaya. I wanted to test the modified ECS (environmental control system) at low altitude and high speed. Whilst at about 400 kts at 200 ft over the sea off the island of Penang, I noticed a little black spot grow rapidly in size directly along the aircraft flight path. I only had time to pull a little on the stick before the bird impacted with a big thump on the aircraft's nose. I pulled up losing speed trying to assess damage. At the speed even a small bird could do considerable damage and this one had been fairly large. We returned immediately to land at Butterworth.
Fortunately, the bird had impacted along one edge of the forward bomb aimer's window. This was armoured glass and had taken most of the shock. A deep gouge had been made in the perspex surrounding the glass window. We were lucky.
A few days later I had the test Canberra fuel load at maximum when I started a take-off at dusk from the 8,000 ft runway at Butterworth. As we accelerated towards lift-off, I saw a very dense flock of small birds rise up off the runway some 600 feet away. Appearing like a small black cloud the birds flew upwards and I thought that I would probably miss most of them if I held down, on or close to, the runway. But the black cloud, disturbed by my approach, apparently decided to try to go back to ground.
I had now lifted off and had a split second to decide whether to put the wheels back on the runway and abort the take off. But there was hardly enough runway left in which to stop the heavy aircraft. Were I to fly through the birds, I would likely lose both engines. What a predicament! Instinctively, I pulled back hard on the controls in an attempt to rise above the main concentration of birds. The aircraft shuddered, at the low speed, as I felt for the limits of the lift from the wings. This occurs just before wing stall which was to be avoided at all costs.
The navigator, behind me, was unable to see forward so I advised him and the tower by calling out,"Avoiding birds" as I tried to also turn a little to the right. The black cloud rapidly became a multitude of dots as I squashed into the outer fringes. There was a staccato of little bangs and the left engine wound down a few RPM before recovering. We had made it. I pulled a substantial reduction in power on both engines in case there was damage, left the undercarriage down and flew a tight circuit to return to the runway as soon as possible. On the landing run, I could see dead and injured birds scattered on the runway.
There was evidence of birds having hit the engine compressor guide vanes and many birds and pieces were pulled from the undercarriage and wheel wells. We had not been fast enough for the small birds to have damaged the aircraft skin. The fire crew picked up 58 birds from the runway.
4 in 15 years:
1 in a glider, simply bounced off
1 of the prop tip in a Piper Cub on short final, made a funny noise (twing!) and bounced off
1 at night in an Aztec at an unholy speed in the descent, bounced off the nose and splattered all over the right engine.
1 on the horizontal stabilizer of another light twin on downwind. That was the scary one. It did cause damage.
1 in a glider, simply bounced off
1 of the prop tip in a Piper Cub on short final, made a funny noise (twing!) and bounced off
1 at night in an Aztec at an unholy speed in the descent, bounced off the nose and splattered all over the right engine.
1 on the horizontal stabilizer of another light twin on downwind. That was the scary one. It did cause damage.
Join Date: Apr 2008
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I can only claim one birdstrike, Cessna 172 port wing LE just inboard of the support strut about 300ft after T/o.... what a bang (Seagull picked up from runway later) I felt the bang through the rudder pedals & did not realise it was a Bird Strike, I wondered what the @ell had happened, so asked the tower to for a "fly by", seems ok was the response.
On landing, the dent in the port L/e was apparent, so the impact "thump" had been transmitted via the strut to the fuselage...... it sure got my attention !!
On landing, the dent in the port L/e was apparent, so the impact "thump" had been transmitted via the strut to the fuselage...... it sure got my attention !!
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Just had my first one today after 130 hours.
A seagull impacting the leading edge of the right wing of a PA28-161, just between the outer two ribs. Happened on something like 200' final to land and I must've been doing about 70-75 knots at the time. Aircraft felt fine so I continued to land. Damage is a severely dented leading edge (about 10 cm deep, 30 cm across) with the metal torn away over something like 7 cm over the rib, and something like 7 rivets torn loose.
A lot of damage from a bird weighing less than a kilo, at relatively low speed. Gave me a new appreciation for the damage they can do when they hit the windscreen.
Strangely enough, I only heard it. Did not feel a thing through the fuselage.
To be honest, the worst thing about it all is the paperwork. This is a reportable incident so every relevant bit of paper needed to be copied and faxed to the police - 16 pages and counting.
A seagull impacting the leading edge of the right wing of a PA28-161, just between the outer two ribs. Happened on something like 200' final to land and I must've been doing about 70-75 knots at the time. Aircraft felt fine so I continued to land. Damage is a severely dented leading edge (about 10 cm deep, 30 cm across) with the metal torn away over something like 7 cm over the rib, and something like 7 rivets torn loose.
A lot of damage from a bird weighing less than a kilo, at relatively low speed. Gave me a new appreciation for the damage they can do when they hit the windscreen.
Strangely enough, I only heard it. Did not feel a thing through the fuselage.
To be honest, the worst thing about it all is the paperwork. This is a reportable incident so every relevant bit of paper needed to be copied and faxed to the police - 16 pages and counting.
Join Date: Jun 2004
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RAF Woodvale 2 in 8 years. Lapwings then we had to find the corpse and send it to the CAA.
Also Lol in our Nangchang Group large crow outr of Gamston dented the leading Edge the size of a football.
Repaired by Personal Plane Services at Booker , great job.
Also Lol in our Nangchang Group large crow outr of Gamston dented the leading Edge the size of a football.
Repaired by Personal Plane Services at Booker , great job.
I witnessed the aftermath of a semi-spectacular birdstrike once. Working on the ramp we heard a mayday call on our tower frequency and a request for an ambulance. A Jet Ranger flew in slowly, you could see the windscreen all smashed and the co-pilot was holding onto the edges to keep it from collapsing further. The shut down the machine and one of the guys in the back got out holding a large turkey buzzard, threw him on the tarmac and walked to the ambulance. These 4 guys were doing power line patrol when they hit the bird. Pilot saw it at the last minute, yelled and ducked. Guy in back heard him yelling, looked up and forward and caught the bird after it went through the glass.
-- IFMU
-- IFMU
Join Date: Jun 2006
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SB 2 Birds 0
Coasting in near Shoreham on the way back from Issy-Les Moulineaux - sudden thud like a hammer on the bubble - lots of feathers - probably a gull of some sort. No damage done (to the helicopter). I fly along the coast quite a lot down here in Cornwall and the birds can get pretty close - usually they move out of the way though.
Hit a pigeon low level in the London area - blood and guts everywhere took a while to wash the mess off the windscreen of my truck!
SB
Hit a pigeon low level in the London area - blood and guts everywhere took a while to wash the mess off the windscreen of my truck!
SB
Join Date: Jan 2006
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One bird hit with Puchacz glider during flare ( Puchacz means owl in english , hehe ) I've 550 TT. No damage to glider and I took fellow aviator to the zoo with broken wing for repairs 
More than i can remember in 50 years of flying but one which sticks in the mind was at Prestwick in the early 70s starting up on the pan outside of "Corenna" when a herring gull flew straight into number 2 intake just as the spey was starting. Got well down into the the engine and totally ruined the hp compressor section. One other was unusual; at about FL350 near Mt Blanc a Bird strike with something about the size of a swift
Last edited by wrecker; 8th May 2008 at 19:57.
