R

Rutus

Man, I am starting to wonder whether bird strikes are like that old saw about pilots of retractables landing gear-up. . . "there are those that have, and those that will." Yesterday was a really beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest, sunny and clear, and I flew to Newport, OR just for fun. On the way back I cruised the coastline back north, and decided to drop in to Nehalem Bay State Airport (3S7) in Manzanita, OR. As I descended from a left base entry and turned onto final for Rwy 33, over the water, what do I see but two large marine birds flapping around just above and ahead? Where are they going? Why are they flapping? Are they going up? Or going down? (This is sounding a lot like P.D. Eastman's "Go Dog, Go", my favorite book as a child and one my long-suffering mother read to me many, many times....):p

Well, they just swirled around and did not seem to have any specific course in mind, or altitude, and so in the end I just went ahead and made the approach. But one of those birds ended up d***ed close overhead as I went past, and I still don't know what the best course of action would have been.:(

The landing was fine. Nehalem Bay is a nice little strip with beach access, camping on the field (there was a couple camping there with a sweet looking high-wing job, looked like an old Stinson), and I enjoyed the stop. But I am still a bit bothered about those birds, and about not having any clear way to avoid them, other than - I guess - to have broken off the approach and hoped they were gone next time around.
 
I hit a small bird in the RV6 at cruise. I saw him just before impact, no time to react. He hit the upper right windscreen and glanced off, no damage but it sounded like someone smacked the canopy with a baseball bat.

Years ago with two of my sons we were crossing over a lake and went through a flock of geese at night in a Skyhawk. They were just blurs, they were going above and below..very, very close.
They must have been juking to miss me because, again I had no time to react, probably good I didn't.

I hit a sparrow with the leading edge in my Supercub, very small dent. Probably just as likely to get a bird strike on the trailing edge in the cub :]
 
Down, usually..

Hi John,
Birds will usually dive if they're higher than 20-50 feet and in my Ag work I have to dodge them all the time. I tell all the guys who come here for training that you absolutely do not want to hit a big bird in your RV at 180+ MPH....makes for a bad day indeed.

A friend was taking off in a -4 a while back with birds sitting on the edge of the runway. As he lifted off and came close to them, they jumped up, with one of them breaking his wood prop...splitting it lengthwise and into the right fuel tank leading edge. He went around the pattern and landed safely but the tank had to be removed for repair. We found out then that if they're low, birds will go up and vice versa if they're high.

Regards,
 
Funny thing about birds, I don't ever remember seeing so many as I have since I started flying the -9.

Saturday we took off out of Goose Creek (That may be some kind of hint, don't fly out of a place called Goose Creek.) and at 100 feet had to dive to avoid a crane. Man, those birds are BIG up close.

I wonder if there are just more birds out there, improving environment, or is it because I'm flying more?
 
After two close calls with large birds in the young life of my RV (200 hrs). I am seriously thinking about painting a third of my spinner white to see if it deters birds from my plane.
 
My buddy is installing a new windshield in his Cherokee Six right now (not because of a bird strike).

I am urging him to go with the thicker one just for this reason!

It is only a couple of hundred dollars more, but I think it is money well spent.

:cool: CJ
 
Birds

I was on short final to a fly-in one morining and saw a bunch of barn swallows scattering. One just missed the canopy, and another one nailed me on the right wing leading edge (no RV damage...only feathers and blood left of the bird). There were so many of the little buggers that trying to avoid them was useless. The only thing I can figure is that they were on the unicom frequency instead of the tower :).
 
I found half a small bird sticking out of the oil cooler of my cherokee once.... the other half was found inbetween the cylinders on the left side at next oil change. Never even noticed hitting him.
 
Mel said:
And probably not squawking VFR.
Click to expand...

I was on an ILS approach into Sugarland the other day.

Houston Approach: "N2141Y advised traffic 2 o-clock 1 mile. Apparently they apparently don't believe in using Mode C. Altitude Unknown. Transponder Blank."

N2141Y: "Roger. No joy on the traffic, but we're looking."

About 20 seconds later there was whole flock of birds right off our right wingtip. They forgot to turn on their Mode C. :)
 
Thursday on the post-annual check flight the local flock of killdeer appeared ahead not long after liftoff. They were at an altitude of 6-10 feet. I was up to around 80-85 mph and decided to climb instead of accelerate. Cleared them by 20' or so. As a protective measure, I usually slow down at the lower altitudes as we find few hawks above the thermals. Since it doesn't take long to get up there, why risk it. Geese seem to me easier to spot as there are usually lots of em together.

Bob Kelly
 
I'm an ace! Fortunately all five have been little ones, never any damage.

I've dodged a lot of big ones. It's funny how some of the hawks have different attitudes. Some will stare you down and not give an inch, others will fold up like a cannonball and dive out of the way.

Coming out of PDK this fall a huge swarm of turkey buzzards (probably about forty to sixty, by far the biggest gathering I'd ever seen) appeared in front of me almost instantly in the smokey haze; that'll get your heart going. Pax in the back no longer sleeping after a couple 2G turns to stay clean through the minefield.

Saw a lot of ducks and geese between 4,000' to 9,000' this winter. These are the ones that scare me the most because they are up where you least expect them sometimes and are really moving. I'd hate to go head on with a duck doing fifty knots.
 
Buy a horn

Everybody used to laugh at the HORN I put on my 6A (it was sortof a joke anyway -- labeled "Panic Button" right in front of the passenger seat).

Houston is one of the worst places in the country for bird strikes. One evening I was landing around dusk and as I turned final a huge flock of blackbirds I hadn't seen on the ground was startled and flew up in a giant cloud. There was no time to do anything but hit the "Panic Button". It was amazing. That cloud of birds just parted like the red sea and I landed without hitting a one. You can bet the 4 I'm building will have the loudest horn I can find.
 
jonbakerok said:
Everybody used to laugh at the HORN I put on my 6A (it was sortof a joke anyway -- labeled "Panic Button" right in front of the passenger seat).

Houston is one of the worst places in the country for bird strikes. One evening I was landing around dusk and as I turned final a huge flock of blackbirds I hadn't seen on the ground was startled and flew up in a giant cloud. There was no time to do anything but hit the "Panic Button". It was amazing. That cloud of birds just parted like the red sea and I landed without hitting a one. You can bet the 4 I'm building will have the loudest horn I can find.
Click to expand...

Pure genius. My airplane MUST have a horn now! :D
 
John,

I think I'm adding deer whistles to the wing tips too.

deer01.gif
 
Vultures

Turkey Vultures are what I most worry about around here. There are a lot of them in the warm months and they are big and they do have collisions with cars, which is a very nasty business.

Last year I was talking to a very experienced pilot who is presently working as a pipeline patroller. I asked him how he deals with the Turkey Vultures, since he is flying all day long at low altitudes. He said the Vultures are not a problem. They watch and get out of the way. He said the problem is the hawks who get fixated on lunch and don't dodge.

Thinking back on the serious collisions I have heard about, it does seem to just about always be hawks.
 
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