How many bird strikes have you had?
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How many bird strikes have you had?
The bird strike discussion got me to thinking about just how often we hit them.
I can only recall about ten or so bird strikes during my flying career.
I also did a lot of low level work, five years agricultural flying both fixed and rotary wing, fifteen seasons fire bombing, one season low level survey flying and seven years in the air show flying business.
I was wondering how other pilots fared in hitting birds in flight?
I can only recall about ten or so bird strikes during my flying career.
I also did a lot of low level work, five years agricultural flying both fixed and rotary wing, fifteen seasons fire bombing, one season low level survey flying and seven years in the air show flying business.
I was wondering how other pilots fared in hitting birds in flight?
I haven't had any.....Probably because the cub flies as slowly as they do. On the other hand, I have shared a lot of thermals with buzzards and vultures when gliding, and I can tell you they keep a pretty good lookout. 
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I've had 4. 2 on short finals to Lyon on seperate occasions in A320s, 1 on an RJ100 while circuit flying that went down engine 1 and resulted in a 3 eng ferry home and 1 on finals to LHR in a B777. Not hit any in GA thankfully. I'm not sure how well my Cub would stand up to a strike either. Probable that the bird would simply perch on one of the wing struts.
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Several thousand birdstrikes, but only a few have resulted in damage. Most resulted in dead birds, many I have no idea what happened to the bird, and most left only blood or debris on the airplane, or in some cases, the bird in or wrapped around part of the airplane. Many of those were while flying ag, often when a flock of birds would rise out of the crop just as I approached.
Of the few that did cause damage, one was a falcon over the Grand Canyon, which peeled the wing back to spar on a Cessna 210. Another was in a Lear 35, which crushed the radome and carried up into the copilot windscreen. Another was in a Cessna 182, in the windscreen; curiously at night at 10,000' in the mountains. The Lear was outside Las Vegas at night too, while slowing to 250 knots at 10,000'. A mallard duck broke the nosewheel fairing on a Cessna 152 while landing, once.
That's about all that comes to mind. I've had evidence of brd ingestion through an engine, but didn't know it at the time, and found no evidence of damage after.
Of the few that did cause damage, one was a falcon over the Grand Canyon, which peeled the wing back to spar on a Cessna 210. Another was in a Lear 35, which crushed the radome and carried up into the copilot windscreen. Another was in a Cessna 182, in the windscreen; curiously at night at 10,000' in the mountains. The Lear was outside Las Vegas at night too, while slowing to 250 knots at 10,000'. A mallard duck broke the nosewheel fairing on a Cessna 152 while landing, once.
That's about all that comes to mind. I've had evidence of brd ingestion through an engine, but didn't know it at the time, and found no evidence of damage after.
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Runway kill
I've only had 2 in 20 years and over 1500 hrs. Both during the flare to land.
One a guinea fowl in a Citabria in Swaziland, the other a French partidge in Norfolk in the Pitts. I caught the guinea fowl with the wing strut and the partridge with the wheel spat/gear leg.
Both were hung, plucked, drawn and eaten!
One a guinea fowl in a Citabria in Swaziland, the other a French partidge in Norfolk in the Pitts. I caught the guinea fowl with the wing strut and the partridge with the wheel spat/gear leg.
Both were hung, plucked, drawn and eaten!
3 - 1 which hit the fin of the Hunter I was flying and peeled back part of the skin (only found out about it after landing) and 2 in VC10s. The first (a tern) hit the fuselage just above the captain's windscreen and the second (a hobby, poor little sod) hit just above the flight deck.
Both VC10 incidents were during continuation training and on both occasions we landed off the next approach.
I also watched a bird pass over the wing of the Gnat I was flying; it disappeared somewhere beneath the aircraft. Probably quaking with fright.
But nothing like the fright a fox which just avoided us on a night touch-and-go in another VC10 must have experienced!
Both VC10 incidents were during continuation training and on both occasions we landed off the next approach.
I also watched a bird pass over the wing of the Gnat I was flying; it disappeared somewhere beneath the aircraft. Probably quaking with fright.
But nothing like the fright a fox which just avoided us on a night touch-and-go in another VC10 must have experienced!
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1, in a PA32.
Hell of a bang just before the flare, ATC reported a strike, firemen attended and found two dead lapwings.
Got out of aircraft expecting big dent, but only found a slight blood trace on LHS main gear spat.
A couple of years later, a fellow pilot hit a Thrush and it made a noticeable dent in the L/E.
Guess there's a lot of luck involved in the damage stakes.
Hell of a bang just before the flare, ATC reported a strike, firemen attended and found two dead lapwings.
Got out of aircraft expecting big dent, but only found a slight blood trace on LHS main gear spat.
A couple of years later, a fellow pilot hit a Thrush and it made a noticeable dent in the L/E.
Guess there's a lot of luck involved in the damage stakes.
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I've had a lot, mainly during military rotary flying at low level (50' - 200' agl). We used to land on, have a look for damage, pick up any remains of the bird to send to MAFF, then carry on. I once had a BIG birdstrike at midnight whilst doing a night casevac over the sea under a full moon. That bird blotted out the ground lights just before it hit the roof, somewhere above my head and from the marks on the roof, it's wingspan was well over a metre. It was possibly a black eared kite, there were lots of them in that part of the world (hence my username). It bounced through the main rotor pitch control rods already tenderised or I might well not be here. Also had one, or two wood pigeons go clean down an intake without causing any damage to the turbine. Just lots of partly cooked bird in the jetpipe.
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When I was on watch as a Tower Controller at Heathrow one morning around 6.30am in the early 70s we had 215 bird strikes with two successive aircraft, resulting in the closure of both runways. At the time it was the record for the most strikes in the shortest time at Heathrow.
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Three times so far, all at low level. Four birds in total. Two on one take off (big dent in the stbd wing L/E), a third on another take-off, and one on landing. There was also the rabbit...
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[QUOTE]Several thousand bidstrikes! Even with several thousand hours , that is a strike for every hour flown!
[QUOTE]
As stated before, the lions share of those strikes occured while performing aerial application (crop dusting). Birds would nestle down in the crop, and by the time the flock was alerted to the aircraft, I was nearly on top of them. They'd rise out of the crop and the number of strikes on the airframe sounded like popcorn popping. We called them popcorn birds for that reason.
After every landing, birds would often be found wrapped around booms and nozzles, inside the automatic flagman, and other parts of the aircraft. Some operators elected to go with reinforced leading edges to cut down on the damage the birds caused.
Where one is working makes a big difference in the number of bird strikes or encounters one might expect.
[QUOTE]
As stated before, the lions share of those strikes occured while performing aerial application (crop dusting). Birds would nestle down in the crop, and by the time the flock was alerted to the aircraft, I was nearly on top of them. They'd rise out of the crop and the number of strikes on the airframe sounded like popcorn popping. We called them popcorn birds for that reason.
After every landing, birds would often be found wrapped around booms and nozzles, inside the automatic flagman, and other parts of the aircraft. Some operators elected to go with reinforced leading edges to cut down on the damage the birds caused.
Where one is working makes a big difference in the number of bird strikes or encounters one might expect.
Know a QF driver who cleaned up 23 birds in one strike flying a 744 into NZ. Said the entire runway seemed to pick up and shift left on short final.