Hemets DO help!
I watched a wingman take a bird in the left forward portion of the canopy while on a low level mission. We were at 200' and 480 knots. After passing through the canopy it hit a glancing blow to his helmet before basically exploding against the bulkhead behind the ejection seat. It broke his visor, his collarbone and made a mess of the helmet (and the rest of the cockpit) but he survived and flew the jet home to an field arrested landing. One of the things we gave some thought to when reviewing the incident was that the helmet afforded protection not only from the mass of the bird but perhaps even more so the sharp pieces of the failed canopy which we found later. Without that helmet and visor we would likely have lost a fine fighter pilot and his trusty steed that day. RVs don't travel this fast but you see the enormous energy which might be imparted in a bird midair from the example above. Food for thought. I am thinking Doug is liking his helmet purchase just a bit more now.
I watched a wingman take a bird in the left forward portion of the canopy while on a low level mission. We were at 200' and 480 knots. After passing through the canopy it hit a glancing blow to his helmet before basically exploding against the bulkhead behind the ejection seat. It broke his visor, his collarbone and made a mess of the helmet (and the rest of the cockpit) but he survived and flew the jet home to an field arrested landing. One of the things we gave some thought to when reviewing the incident was that the helmet afforded protection not only from the mass of the bird but perhaps even more so the sharp pieces of the failed canopy which we found later. Without that helmet and visor we would likely have lost a fine fighter pilot and his trusty steed that day. RVs don't travel this fast but you see the enormous energy which might be imparted in a bird midair from the example above. Food for thought. I am thinking Doug is liking his helmet purchase just a bit more now.