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Bird or Bug?

plehrke

Well Known Member
Patron
Found this big splotch on the cowl while pushing the RV back into the hanger. Never heard or felt anything during my flight. Nothing on the prop.
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I could not see anything in the air intake snorkel so took cowl off and opened the air box. All I found inside was a dragon fly wing.
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So question still is: Bird or Bug?
Hard to believe a dragon fly could make such a mess to the cowl but no evedance of bird feathers.
 
Mosquito!...

Montana breed. Hate the blood suckers! I will shoot you a pic after this weekend to compare.
 
Yup, I would be more prone to think it was a big ole' bug. Lots of times they make more of a mess than a bird strike since bugs go splat and a bird glances off, especially if you didn't hear a thud. Bird feathers tend to explode when struck, so I would expect to see more feather evidence too - snarge (so would the Smithsonian Institution Feather Identification Program!). Not to say bird strikes don't cause damage, they can really tear things up. We see bird strikes every day in the airlines and it's no big deal (unless you are the bird...) if there is no damage.
 
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Already mentioned...

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My mini dachshund eats them when she can get a hold of them. Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. The little bird hits I've had always left a few small feathers.
 
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+1 for cicada

Yep. It's that time of year. When you're in the back yard do you hear a constant drone that sounds like a flight of B17's flying over at low level? Cicadas. Or, as some mistakenly call them, locusts. John
 
That is a Cicada wing, no doubt. Having had several of them strike me while cruising down the interstate on a no windshield/fairing motorcycle, I've had plenty of them smashed on me. Like getting hit by a paintball gun!
 
Birds & Bugs

A friend with an RV-4 thought he had dodged a bird in flight but when he landed his air intake looked a lot like this one. He was supposed to give a pretty girl a ride, so after a cursory look at the intake he felt the plane was OK. He later said the run up was a little off, and the mixture acted a little odd but the girl got her ride. Afterwards I came along and insisted we de cowl and check things out.

I found a bird wing up inside the carb!

We renamed our friend 'Birdman!'

On a similar note, in 1973 I was a Tweet IP at Moody AFB and my Flight Commander Rich had a big motorcycle. He had recently seen the movie 'Easy Rider' and while heading out to the air base before sun up he was 'shot' in the chest.As he put his hand over the wound he saw and felt it was covered in blood. Since he had recently seen the movie, he decided to continue on and not allow the bad guy to finish him off.

He made it into our flight room saying he'd been shot. We could not get his flight suit zipper to budge so we cut it open at the top expecting to find a gunshot wound. No entry wound; only a big red spot on his skin !

He had taken a large bug or bird right in the chest at about 70 mph !
 
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