Bird Strikes - What's it like?
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To all:
Bird and mammal strikes are becoming one of the high priority safety issues for the coming year.
I am involved in writing and production of a book for Transport Canada on this issue and my researched have turned up some interesting points.
Current very conservative estimates indicate that wildlife strikes cost the industry in North America in excess of 500 million dollars.
The most interesting point is that the number of bird strikes with waterfowl is increasing dramatically. these birds are in many cases larger than the wieghts that aircraft and engines are certified to withstand. What is also interesting is the number of encounters where more than one engine is being damaged. Increasing dramatically!
As a pilot the best strategy (and the one I follow when flying the A320) is to climb or descend as rapidly as possible at the lowest safe speed through the bird rich altitudes. 99% of bird strikes occur below 10,000 ft. Migratory waterfowl regularly fly between 2,000 and 10,000 agl, the data proves it. Bird populations, in particular high risk species like geese, are increasing at incredible rates. Bird impact force increases as the square of the speed (double the weight four times the force). This might want a number of you to rethink speeding up above 250 kts below 10,000 ft.
There are some really spectacular pictures available. Take the time and have a look.
If you want more information check out the Transport Canada website www.tc.gc.ca.
Watch the birdie.
P.S. True story... Student pilot strikes bird on downwind leg, requests immediate landing. Tower controller asks if he requires emergency services. Student pilot replies, "No it's alright the bird is dead".
Bird and mammal strikes are becoming one of the high priority safety issues for the coming year.
I am involved in writing and production of a book for Transport Canada on this issue and my researched have turned up some interesting points.
Current very conservative estimates indicate that wildlife strikes cost the industry in North America in excess of 500 million dollars.
The most interesting point is that the number of bird strikes with waterfowl is increasing dramatically. these birds are in many cases larger than the wieghts that aircraft and engines are certified to withstand. What is also interesting is the number of encounters where more than one engine is being damaged. Increasing dramatically!
As a pilot the best strategy (and the one I follow when flying the A320) is to climb or descend as rapidly as possible at the lowest safe speed through the bird rich altitudes. 99% of bird strikes occur below 10,000 ft. Migratory waterfowl regularly fly between 2,000 and 10,000 agl, the data proves it. Bird populations, in particular high risk species like geese, are increasing at incredible rates. Bird impact force increases as the square of the speed (double the weight four times the force). This might want a number of you to rethink speeding up above 250 kts below 10,000 ft.
There are some really spectacular pictures available. Take the time and have a look.
If you want more information check out the Transport Canada website www.tc.gc.ca.
Watch the birdie.
P.S. True story... Student pilot strikes bird on downwind leg, requests immediate landing. Tower controller asks if he requires emergency services. Student pilot replies, "No it's alright the bird is dead".
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Flying in a Baron I saw three pigeons coming straight at me while taking off from Southampton. One swerved to the right, two to the left, and we've hit at least one of them with the props, since I saw feathers on the right. I saw them coming so it didn't really surprise me and since there was nothing wrong with the temperature or any vibrations, we continued to our destination. (training flight, no pax). Since pigeons aren't very big, we figured they didn't have caused any damage. Upon arrivel, we notified maintainance. The next day they told me they had found a fried pigeon under the cowling of the LEFT engine. So it were actually two pigeons. Can you imagine? Such a small bird passing the props and entering the engine via a relative small hole? What are the odds? I figured we were actually lucky it didn't damage the engine.
JBravo
JBravo
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Had a good one back in 1993 landing in Prestwick in a DC8-73. Just as i rotated the nose in the flare a pair of Skylarks flew in to one of the two air cycle machine inlets on the nose of the aircraft (about 4 x 6 inch area). The wise and senior aircraft commander accused me of aiming for them, just to get a wonderful night in the Caledonian Hotel!
On a serious note if you are coming towards birds and you have the time to observe them you can tell the relative size of the bird by the frequency of wing flap movements - big bird long slow wing flaps, small birds the ooposite. This might prepare you for the magnitude of the splat.
The best strategy to maneuver to avoid birds is to pull up (don't stall!).
The above two pieces of information are from research work by many respected biologists and are contained in the the new Transport Canada bird strike book "Sharing the Skies" to be published later this year. A great book for all the members of the industry.
And no I don't get any royalties!
On a serious note if you are coming towards birds and you have the time to observe them you can tell the relative size of the bird by the frequency of wing flap movements - big bird long slow wing flaps, small birds the ooposite. This might prepare you for the magnitude of the splat.
The best strategy to maneuver to avoid birds is to pull up (don't stall!).
The above two pieces of information are from research work by many respected biologists and are contained in the the new Transport Canada bird strike book "Sharing the Skies" to be published later this year. A great book for all the members of the industry.
And no I don't get any royalties!
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Hit a seagull with a 125 coming out of Burke Lakefront once, went through the right engine. The smell of cooked seagull is enough to put one off KFC for awhile, I can tell you. The Garrett rep changed the engine and we went back to base. On the return to BKL four days later, hit another bloody gull just on rotation, right above the right windshield panel. Got a whole flock of snow buntings once on landing with a DC-3. We counted twenty three little blood spatters on the right side of the nose, as well as about a dozen more in the right engine.
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I don't think there is any particular good way to avoid bird strike. It happens in a fraction of a second; pulling up the nose sounds like a quickiest way to change your flight path. However, observing the G limit of the a/c must be kept in mind. The well being of the pax is also a factor.
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My first flight in a T-38, about 100 ft, I retract the gear and see a flock of birds pass very quickly by us accompanied by numerous "thuds" The fragile J-85's didn't burp..I tell my instructor that I think we took some birds, and he starts railing about how that was the sound of the gear retracting!! He then starts lecturing me about how I had approx 2 minutes of T-38 time and he had over 700 hours, and I should not question him, etc etc...great start with a guy who holds my future in his hands. As we block in, the crew chief starts pointing to us and a few others come by to look, blood and guts everywhere, and a required engine change on one engine!!! My instructor never apologized. Flying C-141's at 300 ft, I've must have had hundreds of bird strikes, we just wrote it up upon landing. Nowadays, the military is so cautious concerning birdstrikes that we have to land immediatley to inspect the aircraft!!! great policy if your finished with your training and want to land early!!!!
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What's it like? Pretty darned uncomfortable, if you're a bird...
I've had a couple of birdstrikes, and one foxstrike. That was on the T/O roll out of SEN in an EMB110 at night. I saw it and tried to lift the nosewheel over it - my skipper hadn't seen it and thought I had gone barmy, trying to rotate too early! Hit it a glancing blow, and it must have crawled off to die somewhere quieter, as the subsequent R/W inspection didn't find it.
Neither birstrike was much of an event - one in an Islander (NO, it didn't hit it from behind!) caught the nosegear leg. The other in an ATR72, hit just above the F/O's windscreen, no damage (to the aircraft) but much blood and guts scraped over the front of the fuselage.
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Breeding Per Dementia Unto Something Jolly Big, Toodle-pip
I've had a couple of birdstrikes, and one foxstrike. That was on the T/O roll out of SEN in an EMB110 at night. I saw it and tried to lift the nosewheel over it - my skipper hadn't seen it and thought I had gone barmy, trying to rotate too early! Hit it a glancing blow, and it must have crawled off to die somewhere quieter, as the subsequent R/W inspection didn't find it.
Neither birstrike was much of an event - one in an Islander (NO, it didn't hit it from behind!) caught the nosegear leg. The other in an ATR72, hit just above the F/O's windscreen, no damage (to the aircraft) but much blood and guts scraped over the front of the fuselage.
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Breeding Per Dementia Unto Something Jolly Big, Toodle-pip
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pullupnow - yep quite a few! My audience hear plenty of scary stories everyday about my flying lessons. I've nearly landed on a a few of them whilst doing PFL's!
But seeing as the weather bulletin on my radio station is sponsored by Cardiff International Airport - I think that my paymasters would be a little upset at me telling all my listeners about the joys of birdstrikes!!
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"Something hit us - there's nobody left to fly the plane!!" AIRPORT '77
But seeing as the weather bulletin on my radio station is sponsored by Cardiff International Airport - I think that my paymasters would be a little upset at me telling all my listeners about the joys of birdstrikes!!
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"Something hit us - there's nobody left to fly the plane!!" AIRPORT '77
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crashdive,
forgive me if i sound like a smartarse,
but on page one of this thread in your post
you mentioned "a/c walloped the bird on
the radome"
now i may be wrong but i didn't know that
birds had radomes, and if they did you
would think they would be able to see the
aircraft coming and avoid it.
forgive me if i sound like a smartarse,
but on page one of this thread in your post
you mentioned "a/c walloped the bird on
the radome"
now i may be wrong but i didn't know that
birds had radomes, and if they did you
would think they would be able to see the
aircraft coming and avoid it.
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I was once involved in clearing off the runway at LGW in TriStar and on arrival at destination found the remains of 7 seagulls in the gear and wing engines.
Someone shouted "BIRDS" and I recall seeing three faces very close to the pedestal close to V1!!
Saw a Twin Bonanza in Louisiana that got a swan after take-off in the dark. The windshield was gone and the guy was wearing most of it, UGH!!
Someone shouted "BIRDS" and I recall seeing three faces very close to the pedestal close to V1!!
Saw a Twin Bonanza in Louisiana that got a swan after take-off in the dark. The windshield was gone and the guy was wearing most of it, UGH!!
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One or two,
1. Large seagull expired all over the skippers windscreen rotating at MAD in a 737-200. Not pretty, lost the A system and had to land back in.
2. Same week, scottish seagull went headfirst into No.2 engine going into GLA, smelled a bit, had to nightstop!
1. Large seagull expired all over the skippers windscreen rotating at MAD in a 737-200. Not pretty, lost the A system and had to land back in.
2. Same week, scottish seagull went headfirst into No.2 engine going into GLA, smelled a bit, had to nightstop!
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For weeks there had been a very very large flock of birds hanging around this little grass strip that we were based at. No matter what you did ie drive ya car at them, through stuff at them, unleash the dogs on them......not one was ever caught / hurt and all would return to the grass seeds on the runway. They always seemed to get out of the way just in time..........
Until one cold sunrise.....
Taking off in a Partenavia, lights on etc etc As previous practice dictated, they would scatter at the last second. This time for some reason they did, but just as I was rotating.....sounded just like a wipper snipper.
Flew through the complete flock. Blood splatters on both wing leading edges, nose and sides, and all over the props and engines. From wing backwards was blood and guts, somehow right to the top of the vertical stab.
Almost pissed my pants laughing so hard (..I must be mentally deficient...), but trying to wash all the dried blood and guts off was something else!!!
Instant ace 4 times over!!! Tastes just like chicken......Partemafia 20 - flock 0
Until one cold sunrise.....
Taking off in a Partenavia, lights on etc etc As previous practice dictated, they would scatter at the last second. This time for some reason they did, but just as I was rotating.....sounded just like a wipper snipper.
Flew through the complete flock. Blood splatters on both wing leading edges, nose and sides, and all over the props and engines. From wing backwards was blood and guts, somehow right to the top of the vertical stab.
Almost pissed my pants laughing so hard (..I must be mentally deficient...), but trying to wash all the dried blood and guts off was something else!!!
Instant ace 4 times over!!! Tastes just like chicken......Partemafia 20 - flock 0
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Had one in DUB last year, a gull just as we touched down (on 29) on the left hand side. We saw him/her/it lying there as we taxyed off and gave the guys a call. Off out the van went, and as he approached it, it stood up and flew off! Strangest thing I ever saw. How do you write that up in the log??!!
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Do you guys in the UK, have to pick up the bits, put the remains in a bag and send them off to the birds & fisheries commision or something? I'm trying to rattle my brains if this is true or B/Sht. Think I remember seeing it in an Air Law book? Not sure...
GV
GV
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I've hit two birds, both in the Jetstream 31 when I was an FO on it. The first hit the Captain's windshield just before V1. I was looking at the airspeed indicator about to call V1 when he said **** and ducked almost below the glareshield. I saw a black bird hit the windshield square, leave NO mark, and bounce off left. He called the abort at V1 and we got it stopped, he was worried the bird had gone into #1. Inspection revealed a couple of feathers but not a dent or a bird setting a nest in the turbine. :-)
The second time another bird hit the Captain's window at 100 AGL on landing leaving a bloody hell of a mess. He passed the controls to me and we landed out of it. Again no apparent damage to anything.
The summary of my stories? Airline windshields do a very good job at stopping smaller birds and I attract windshield bird strikes (better than losing an engine to one though I suppose.)
The second time another bird hit the Captain's window at 100 AGL on landing leaving a bloody hell of a mess. He passed the controls to me and we landed out of it. Again no apparent damage to anything.
The summary of my stories? Airline windshields do a very good job at stopping smaller birds and I attract windshield bird strikes (better than losing an engine to one though I suppose.)
