Bird Strikes - What's it like?
 

A little while ago, whilst I sat at the holding point waiting to get into the circuit at Cardiff, an A320 (of JMC, I think) was on finals. Behind him was an A330. A BRA Embraer was on the take-off roll.

Shortly after rotation, the Emb pilot reported that he'd struck a bird whilst still on the runway.
Then, upon touchdown, the A320 pilot reported that he'd had a bird strike too.
A few moments later, the A330 pilot reported the same thing - and we could clearly see a big red streak running down the fuselage, just below the cockpit windows.

Aside from the obvious danger to the engines and power loss on take-off/approach - it must be pretty damn scary to hit a chook that hard. Any bird strike stories/anecdotes/legends welcome.

------------------
If it ain't a Boeing - I ain't going!

I had a bird strike a few years ago in a 727 in Africa.

Shortly afer rotation, as we pulled up the gear there was a huge bang and we couldn't get the nose gear to lock up properly.
A HUGE bloody bird had hit the nose gear and buggered up the hydraulics. We got it down okay and landed safely.

Blood and feathers everywhere though!

We took out a seagull recently passing 200ft or so going out of a coastal uk airfield.Saw the thing out of the corner of my eye, thinking that was close. No adverse indications or bumps or anything. On arrival at a near continental airfield, stopping at the ramp, the wingtip looked different somehow. On closer inspection we could see the by now ill-defined form of a shredded body wrapped around the tip which had a rather large dent in it. 400 plus knots is clearly more than the bird could stand up in. It certainly lost its hair and feathers plus a limb or three and happily no serious damage sustained by ourselves. :)

It's too bad that you can't ask the question from the birds' point of view. I would think that if the question could be asked of the bird, "what was the first thing that went through your mind when you hit the airplane"? His answer most likely would have been, "MY Ass".

On a more or less serious note, several years ago a 727 on climbout from an Alaskan airfield frightened an eagle carrying a large salmon. The bird dropped the salmon and it impacted the 727 just above the passenger door making a loud bang and leaving a considerable dent in the metalwork.

------------------
The Cat

I can remember hearing the bang the moment I was thinking "Well, those birds where lucky." On arrival we found the remnants splattered all over the leading edge devices :). Poor buggers, they did well in avoiding the nose though. Which is why I thought they were lucky :). Well, one can't have everything, can we?

I've had a large bird strike just on the bottom edge of the windshield. We were turning onto final at the time. Its not very nice! It comes up so damn fast, natural reaction is to duck ('scuse the pun)/move sideways which is just what we did! The blood and guts were scraped off by the engineer later.
If you can imagine someone suddenly punching you in the face its like that, but without the pain.

I don't know if this is true but I have heard it repeated many times. It seems that a UK aircraft company secured the drawings for the chicken gun used by Boeing. They built the gun to spec and used it to hurl a deceased chicken into the windshield (windscreen) of a new aircraft under test.

The gun was pressurized to spec and the chicken was hurled at the windshield. It not only penetrated the glass but it kept on going and totally deformed the rear wall of the flight deck.

The UK aircraft company asked Boeing what went wrong. After a lengthy conversation back and forth it was discovered that the UK types didn't thaw the chicken prior to placing it in the barrel of the gun.

------------------
The Cat

I have had several bird strikes, a bat strike and clobbered a wallaby (on the landing roll).
Depending on where it hits (and how big the bird is) it ranges from annoyance to grounding the plane. Needless to say, a loud "bang" is heard and you just hope it didn't go through the prop.
WIth one bird strike, all that was left was the Kite's beak in the leading edge. The worst one I have seen was when a Wedge Tail eagle (about 50kg of bird) slammed into the wing root of a Dash 8 out of Broome WA. Grounded the plane for 3 months. Nearly wrote it off as the impact bent the spar! Fortunately the boys from DHC or Bombardier or whatever they are called this week, flew out and sorted out a fix for it. :)

------------------
reddo...feral animal!

I have only had one, hit a small white bird on the lower right side of the nose of a Dash-8. Caught sight of it about a half second before impact and felt a thump. Lucky it didn't go thru the prop I guess. On the ground there was no damage, just some feathers and blood. Our company did have a Dash that took a goose on the leading edge of the right wing, going completely through the leading edge and doing serious and extensive damage to the forward spar.

Geese hurt!!

BAcktracking the runway on a tropical coral cay some years back in an Islander, with a seagull flying parallel and at taxi speed.

The seagull diverted left and rearward and was chopped into 4 bits as both blades bisected it.

------------------
bottums up !

I once read (I'm sure it was in the American version of the magazine 'Flyer' ) of a Griffon Vulture that was hit by a jet (from memory a B707, or was it a DC8?) whilst the a/c was climbing/descending at something like FL180.

Now, if you've ever seen a Griffon Vulture you'll know that they're some BIG bird !

Thus a/c walloped the bird on the radome, which the bird subsequently went straight through, and then through the firewall, before coming to a halt about the F/O's legs - which it broke both of ! - and seriously damaging the controls / instruments.

http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/eek.gif http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/eek.gif http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/eek.gif

I have had my share of birdstrikes over the years, but the thing that always scared the S#@t out of me was running into a mob of kangaroos on landing in a single at 0700 on El Questo Station in the Kimberley WA.What a bloody mess, the leading edges were buggered, and the windscreen, the prop looked like it had tried to mix cement and dead roos from Ar@se #ole to breakfast. Some start to a holiday....

Some years ago a RAAF P3 Orion hit a pelcan in flight, and the damage was huge. Several of the flight deck instruments were forced out of the instrument panel, severe distortion to many frames in the nose, etc, etc. The aircraft was unconsidered to be damaged beyond economical repair. Needless to say the RNZAF bought it at scrap value, bought some bigger sledgehammers and had it back flying in no time!

Well here's a fairly recent one from the aaib it indicates some of the damage that can occur.
<A HREF="http://www.aaib.detr.gov.uk/sep99htm/gawnjf2.jpg" TARGET="_blank">www.aaib.detr.gov.uk/sep99htm/gawnjf2.jpg</A>
The cause.....a 4lb grey heron!


[This message has been edited by gas path (edited 05 December 2000).]

A few years ago a UK Army Gazelle helicopter hit a buzzard which came through intact into the cockpit. Shortly afterwards it woke up and attacked the pilot. The observer was obliged to wring its neck to save his own!

If a bird goes into a jet engine do you get shredded tweet?


Sorry Malcolm, I know that one's yours!

[This message has been edited by piston broke (edited 05 December 2000).]

I guess I'm lucky to have the big mix master overhead. Every birdstrike I've had has been a very fine puree of GU-11 after going through the blades at Pina Colada Speed!

The ones that managed to miss the blades (by some miracle) have been so small they have usually hit with a minor 'plunk' and splatter!

I have had some buddies in a 212 at night, low level, have an intimate relationship with a 12 pound goose at 100 kts. I've seen the post impact photos and believe me, I'd hate to have been doing 400 or 500 kts!

Cheers, OffshoreIgor http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/eek.gif

While on the course at British Aerospace Woodford, I was told a story (they swore it was true)about the certification trials of the BAe 146 windscreen. The chicken was weighed and loaded up in the test cannon prior to the 250kt impact test. The technicians then went for lunch. When they returned, they finished setting the measurement equipment and fired the cannon. Chicken duly splatted on screen...together with a mass of black fur. When they examined the screen they discovered the sadly mangled carcass of a cat -which had crept in to eat the chicken while they were at lunch.

So if you are lucky enough to fly the 146, you can relax in the knowledge that the screen is tested for cat strike up to 250kts.

Took out a couple of Upland Geese at Mount Pleasant a few years ago. It was at about 110kts on take off in a very heavy C130 (max mil overload). One went through the leading edge and mangled the bleed air manifold and various other fairly important bits'n'bobs. The other went down the No. 3 engine, which barely noticed! The smell from the a/c before we got it switched off was disgusting!! The reject at that weight with limited reverse thrust was quite sporting as well.
Another story: when I was a baby fast-jet trainee at RAF Valley in the late '70s, one guy (RN, I think) took out a large bird at 420kts at low-level. The bird struck the Hawk just below the windscreen, and the remains penetrated the aircraft skin, went through the instrument panel, and landed in his lap. The subsequent 420kt breeze concentrated his mind somewhat, but I'm pretty sure he got it down OK (at RAF Mona, I think). He certainly earned his pay that day!