[Bryan Wood]

Saturday I was a passenger in my 9A so that my father in law could get a little time in it. It has been a few months since he had flown it and wanted a refresher with me there. We flew about 30 miles to Watsonville along the N. CA coast and had lunch. He was doing great even though he kept saying how foreign it felt compared to his Comanche.

When we departed off of 20 at Watsonville to return home we had to wait for an un-sightly 172 to wallow off of the runway and finally the father in law began to apply power. As we were lifting off the Cessna was turning crosswind way off of the departure end at what seemed like about 500 or 600' agl. In no time we were looking down at him as he turned a "WIDE" downwind. For the life of me I can't figure out why these folks fly such large patterns. It seems like the slower their airplane the larger the pattern that they seem to fly. Anyway after turning crosswind my father in law was focusing on the 172 that we were running down when I saw them. There were a formation of geese or "Gooses" in this case. They were right in front of us at our altitude or just about 100' or so higher. I said "Birds" and he looked forward. It is hard to describe the expression on his face when he saw what was ahead of us. As my attention left his expression and returned to this formation of Gooses I could see that they were becoming concerned also. As we were bearing down on them their faces became animated and their wings began to change shape as they turned and dove. In case any one of you are wondering geese do not follow their lead when going head on with an airplane. Every last one of them turned and dove! If given time it would probably be best to climb over them. I don't know how we flew through this grouping of gooses without hitting any, but thankfully we didn't. There are a couple of things that really stand out from this. One was how time seemed to slow down as my mind pictured Lairds photos that we have all seen on the internet after his birdstrike, and the one recently posted on this group of the flipped over RV-6 in a field after a bird strike. I'm not kidding with this, my mind actually recalled these photos and processed those words "Oh @#*)." In an instant my mind recalled the birds in the photos and they were not geese, but still the damage was great. This can't be good. Secondly, the expressions on the birds when they began to realize the situation that they were in. It was cartoon like. If your ever close enough to see this you are to close!

Okay, we made it through so where's that Cessna? We turned a wide left climbing downwind and passed the Cessna by the far end of the runway way off to his right. Reaching down for the Syrius Satallite radio I put on classic country and off we went.

Regards,

Bryan 9A "Flyin the Flag"

 

[Bob Axsom]

I've Had two bird strikes

The first was a seagull (big bird) as I was flying over a stratus layer at El Monte (EMT) looking for a hole to go down through before the tower opened (one of the early morning commute flights that I thought I could make VFR per BUR, LAX and ONT weather). I was looking over my right shoulder down at the location of the airport and as I turned my eyes back to the front there were the seagulls. I don't know what the others did but the one directly in front of me spread out its wings at 11 and 5 o'clock in a way that looked like an all out effort to stop flying in my direction with the entire bottom side directly in my line of flight in front of the prop. The next instant he was gone. Bird matter was spread over part of my right wing and a few inches of the sheet metal edge just aft of the cowl was bent down mayby 3/8" infront of the passenger position. Later hair line cracks showed up in the paint of the cowl in front of this area.

The other happen a few weeks ago (10-10-05) when I was doing my three full stop landings and take offs to get night current at Drake Field in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It was a very dark night with clouds starting at 4,000ft according to the automated weather (they still don't have that at EMT). I'm not sure of the exact time but I believe it was around 22:00 CST (10PM) I sensed a thump but saw nothing. The plane flew fine. Later that week when I was at the hangar I saw a small brown feather mass wrapped around the passenger step. As I washed the belly I saw more of the same wrapped around the base of the left bent whip Comant com antenna (the antenna shape and performance were unchanged by the impact) forward of the step.

Birds are out there even at night.

Bob Axsom

 

[Alex]

Birds at night

Bob's story sounds a lot like mine.

I was doing my night training when I had my bird strike. I was at 700 ft AGL, with my instructor, climbing out of a field near our home base when we heard the thump. We were in a C152 and I could feel the thump in my leg, which was leaned against the left door frame. We checked the engine instruments, which were all fine, and got out the flashlight. My instructor looked over his side of the airplane and then passed the flashlight to me. The bird had hit the left wing right at the strut fairing, and it left behind one of its wings, with the bone jammed between the fairing and the wing skin. There was some bird goo on the underside of the wing and on the tank vent as well. We landed without incident and left our souvenir at the FBO desk. There wasn't any bent aluminum, fortunately.

 

[gmcjetpilot]

Bird's!

There were a formation of geese or "Gooses" in this case. They were right in front of us at our altitude or just about 100' or so higher. I said "Birds" and he looked forward........... Every last one of them turned and dove! Bryan 9A "Flyin the Flag"

That is what every bird does when startled (except some birds of prey), so the place to be is above them.

Bird strikes are very serious. RV's fly fast and have fairly thin wind screens. I remember a Piper from a FBO I flew at was hit. The pilot received serious eye injury when the bird went right through, but he was able to land safely with his two passengers. Eye protection is not a bad idea for those low fast flights.

The only bird that I saw that did not dive was an eagle. Flying thru the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. I was climbing out in a slow plane up the pass, and the darn eagle soaring gracefully was circling me and looking at me like, who do you think you are; I was born with wings man. Never forget the look that bird of prey gave me, like you are too big to eat, for now.

Here is a previous post of a bird strike in cockpit video:
http://www.big-boys.com/articles/abirdhitsplane.html

Here is what we really want to do to Pigeons that S#%t on our car.
http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/BirdGone2.mpg
(Commercial and no birds where hurt in the making....blaaaa blaaaa)

Seriously there is lots of good info on the web about bird strikes.

George

 

[Jamie]

Here is a link to some very practical information on avoiding birdstrikes from avemco. A very interesting read.

 

[OneTwoSierra]

Hawks and Buzzards

The issue I've had in North Texas has been with Hawks and Buzzards at 1500 to 3000 feet. Its amazing to me that they'd want to fly that high. But as with the geese described, they always fold their wings and dive. My very first close encounter was the closest -- in a Cessna 172 a several years back. I too thought it was comical the way the bird reacted, but every since I've considered myself lucky that I didn't hit it. I keep a lookout now for all types of flying things practice see and avoid - I try to get nowhere near them anymore. To me they own the skies, and I'm trespassing on their turf.

But there's few things as beautiful to me as over-flying (by 1000 feet or more) a formation of geese and looking down upon them.

 

[jbDC9]

Birds are out there even at night.

Yes they are; my worst bird strike occurred on a dark night, 7000 ft enroute Omaha to Des Moines in a Cessna 310; hit 4-5 geese at the same time. I must've interrupted their little formation... smashed up the plane quite a bit and made a big bloody mess. Stinky too.

 

[jonbakerok]

A buzzard on my first solo

... the expressions on the birds when they began to realize the situation that they were in. It was cartoon like.

That reminded me of my first solo. On my first pass around the pattern, I turned base to final right into a buzzard's path. It surprised him about as much as it did me and he did one of those cartoon Wiley Coyote things in mid-air. I pulled back and just barely cleared him as he finally got his act together and dove. A buzzard on my first solo -- what a way to start!

But it was actually damn lucky. The week before, we'd seen a couple of geese and it caused my CFI to think to tell me to always climb if I ever had a bird encounter. I sure wouldn't have figured that out on my own. Probably saved my bacon.

 

[kevinh]

One of the best times I ever had:

I was working on my glider rating and circling in a thermal (with an instructor). I pulled up next to a hawk and we just kept circling _very_ close to each other for a long time. He looked at me, I looked at him - freaky.

 

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

I tend not to fly miuch at this time of the year. It seems as soon as the corn harvest comes in and it gets cold....geese are everywhere. Even at night I hear 'em heading South or coming in to spend the night in the field.

I hate geese.

And around here, we've got tons of 'em. Can't even make a decent putt on the green anymore.

 

[Vern]

USAF windscreen standards

Birds and airplanes have always had their conflicts. That's why the USAF adopted the following standard for manufacturing canopies and windscreens, which is:

"Must be able to withstand a 5 pound bird impact at 500 knots or a 500 pound bird impact at 5 knots."

 

[Doug Rodrigues]

I used to have a theory about not changing heading or making any wild maneuvers and allow the bird to take the evasive action. After striking a duck with the right wing strut of my old Cessna about 15 years ago, I'm not too sure about any theory.