Bird strikes on light GA prop aircraft

[Maxwell]

I was out hopping some of the local airports last Saturday night and had a
very near miss with a very large bird. It appeared to be a large owl, or
something similar. I was at about 50 to 100 feet on take-off, about 75
knots, and seriously out of runway.

The whole situation just got me to thinking about bird strikes and light GA
aircraft. I have seen and heard a lot of first and second hand stories about
deer strikes on quiet runways, and usually do a low pass to check,
especially the quiet places. But I guess I had never heard or seriously
considered a bird strike with such a large bird.

Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.

[Ol Shy & Bashful]

On Aug 20, 1:51 pm, "Maxwell" > wrote:
> I was out hopping some of the local airports last Saturday night and had a
> very near miss with a very large bird. It appeared to be a large owl, or
> something similar. I was at about 50 to 100 feet on take-off, about 75
> knots, and seriously out of runway.
>
> The whole situation just got me to thinking about bird strikes and light GA
> aircraft. I have seen and heard a lot of first and second hand stories about
> deer strikes on quiet runways, and usually do a low pass to check,
> especially the quiet places. But I guess I had never heard or seriously
> considered a bird strike with such a large bird.
>
> Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
> happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
> flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.

I've had many bird strikes (100's) in both airplanes and helicopters.
Have had several that came thru the windscreen into the cockpit. On
one birdstrike, the bird/s glanced off my helmet and left a near
perfect imprint of feathers when I ducked. The birds were dead and I
had a large hole in the windscreen. Landed without further incident.
I've never been injured from a bird strike but have had severe damage
to the aircraft that required some expensive repairs.
One incident that caused me to rethink birdstrikes was finding a piece
of plexiglass shaped like a dagger with extremely sharp edges inside
the cockpit. If I had been hit in the throat with that piece, could I
have bled out before I could get back on the ground? Perhaps..... and
it sure made me think. I used that same piece of plexiglass for a
letter opener for years. Perhaps the most unusual was a little Mallard
hen that came thru the windscreen of a helicopter and flew around in
the cockpit until I knocked it down into the chin bubble.
>From my experiences, if faced with an imminent bird strike, I'll try
to fly up and turn to take the strike on the belly of the aircraft
rather than thru the windscreen. I've hit birds with both prop and
rotorblade. It always 100% of the time resulted in a red explosion
with blood and guts on the window. There was a fast shudder/vibration
that went away in seconds. I've seen some major damage from
birdstrikes and on occasion, an aircraft that was brought down by
them. If you haven't, check the OopsList.com and find a lot of
birdstrike pics.
Cheers
Ol S&B
flyin buzzard - World INfamous Pilot/Instructor

[Jim Burns[_2_]]

Hawk into the upper curvature of a C182 windscreen. No damage, very loud.
Sparrows into the air intake of an Archer, discovered post flight.
Unknown into the prop and spread alongside the cowl of a Lance
Near miss of a turkey buzzard in an Aztec
Saw another Aztec that had a goose crunch the leading edge back to the spar.

Jim

"Maxwell" > wrote in message
...
> I was out hopping some of the local airports last Saturday night and had a
> very near miss with a very large bird. It appeared to be a large owl, or
> something similar. I was at about 50 to 100 feet on take-off, about 75
> knots, and seriously out of runway.
>
> The whole situation just got me to thinking about bird strikes and light
GA
> aircraft. I have seen and heard a lot of first and second hand stories
about
> deer strikes on quiet runways, and usually do a low pass to check,
> especially the quiet places. But I guess I had never heard or seriously
> considered a bird strike with such a large bird.
>
> Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
> happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
> flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.
>
>
>

[Ron Natalie]

Maxwell wrote:

> Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
> happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
> flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.
>
>
>

I hit a similar sized bird (turkey buzard) with the wing of a Skyhawk.
It pushed a section of the leading edge between two ribs back to the
spar.

[Thomas Borchert]

Maxwell,

> Any first had experiences out there?
>

A hawk hitting the wing of the DA-40 I was flying over Scottsdale, AZ.
No damage, I just had to wipe off the blood spatter and feathers.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

[Vaughn Simon]

"Jim Stewart" > wrote in message
...
>> Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
>> happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc?

We had a C-152 on the training line that had a birdstrike dent in one
leading edge. I guess it was deemed just small enough to not require repair,
but that plane briskly dropped that wing every time in a stall.

My own experience is almost too insignificant to mention..a hit on my lower
fuze just as I was rolling out into final on my very first flight in a
single-seat glider. I only mention it because most of the time I have hit birds
in cars (and that one time in an aircraft) I was turning at the time. Perhaps
birds assume that all machines travel in a straight line?

Vaughn

[Paul kgyy]

A lot of seagulls at kgyy. I often see them dodging me on takeoff but
have never hit one. Read an article about somebody who hit one with a
Velocity a while back - came right through the ws into the pilot's
face. He couldn't see anything because eyes were covered with guts
and gore. Fortunately he had a companion who was able to control the
aircraft while he got cleaned up enough to land.

It is part of the reason why I passed up an opportunity to install a 1-
piece windshield in the Arrow several years ago.

[Jim Stewart]

Maxwell wrote:
> I was out hopping some of the local airports last Saturday night and had a
> very near miss with a very large bird. It appeared to be a large owl, or
> something similar. I was at about 50 to 100 feet on take-off, about 75
> knots, and seriously out of runway.
>
> The whole situation just got me to thinking about bird strikes and light GA
> aircraft. I have seen and heard a lot of first and second hand stories about
> deer strikes on quiet runways, and usually do a low pass to check,
> especially the quiet places. But I guess I had never heard or seriously
> considered a bird strike with such a large bird.
>
> Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
> happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
> flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.

Not first hand, but about a month ago an
instructor and student in a 150 hit a
hawk a couple miles away. The hawk broke
the windscreen causing so much drag that
the instructor had to land in a tomato
field. Everyone except the hawk and 150
escaped with minor injuries.

[Cubdriver]

Last week I landed on the grass at Plum Island MA and was rather
amazed to see fifty or a hundred Canada geese at the far end of the
runway. Perhaps unwisely, I braked and turned around. (Probably I
would have done better to taxi toward them and scare them off.)

Of course when I took off again, all the honkers took fright and took
flight. Happily the Cub can climb faster than a goose.

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
new from HarperCollins www.FlyingTigersBook.com

[Roger (K8RI)]

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:09:52 -0700, Paul kgyy >
wrote:

>A lot of seagulls at kgyy. I often see them dodging me on takeoff but
>have never hit one. Read an article about somebody who hit one with a
>Velocity a while back - came right through the ws into the pilot's
>face. He couldn't see anything because eyes were covered with guts
>and gore. Fortunately he had a companion who was able to control the
>aircraft while he got cleaned up enough to land.
>
>It is part of the reason why I passed up an opportunity to install a 1-
>piece windshield in the Arrow several years ago.

Depends on the windshield. It could be one of the reasons for going to
a one piece. The one piece, speed sloped (tm) windshield in the
Bonanza is far stronger than the original two piece. Mine is 1/2"
thick. I've bounced some pretty big birds off it. It's silent in
torrential rain where the old plexiglass in the Cherokee 180 was
deafening in heavy rain.

[Morgans[_2_]]

"Roger (K8RI)" < wrote

> Depends on the windshield. It could be one of the reasons for going to
> a one piece. The one piece, speed sloped (tm) windshield in the
> Bonanza is far stronger than the original two piece. Mine is 1/2"
> thick. I've bounced some pretty big birds off it. It's silent in
> torrential rain where the old plexiglass in the Cherokee 180 was
> deafening in heavy rain.


Wow, I'll bet it is a lot quieter! I didn't know anyone made 1/2" thick
windshields for these sized planes. I'll bet it is heavy, but in my
opinion, worth every pound.
--
Jim in NC

[Roger (K8RI)]

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:51:04 -0400, "Morgans"
> wrote:

>
>"Roger (K8RI)" < wrote
>
>> Depends on the windshield. It could be one of the reasons for going to
>> a one piece. The one piece, speed sloped (tm) windshield in the
>> Bonanza is far stronger than the original two piece. Mine is 1/2"
>> thick. I've bounced some pretty big birds off it. It's silent in
>> torrential rain where the old plexiglass in the Cherokee 180 was
>> deafening in heavy rain.
>
>
>Wow, I'll bet it is a lot quieter! I didn't know anyone made 1/2" thick
>windshields for these sized planes. I'll bet it is heavy, but in my
>opinion, worth every pound.

The book says half inch, but I can only find 3/8" currently available.
Still, 3/8 is one whale of a lot more sturdy than the thin 1/8" stuff.

BTW the side windows including the doors are 1/4" on the Deb and it is
definitely quieter. Still noisy but quieter than original.<:-))

[Bob Martin]

Maxwell wrote:

> Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
> happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
> flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.

A friend of our once took a songbird in one of the cooling holes on the cowl of his RV-4.
After he spent a week cleaning burned feathers and guts out from the cylinder fins, we
stuck a bird silhouette and a "birdman" callsign on his canopy.

[[email protected]]

On Aug 20, 12:51 pm, "Maxwell" > wrote:

> Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
> happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
> flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.

Too many pilots think about the wing or windshield, while tail,
much more lightly constructed, is a really vulnerable section. See the
picture of the Cherokee on this page:
http://planeplaces.com/

I've had a few encounters with big birds, and they aren't
afraid of the airplane. Some, especially hawks and eagles, can get
aggressive toward airplanes in what they consider their territory. I
regularly have to dodge hawks, and a few years ago an eagle gave me an
awful scare. He'd have taken the tail clean off the airplane if he'd
hit it. Tailless airplanes don't fly well at all.

Dan

[Orval Fairbairn]

In article . com>,
wrote:

> On Aug 20, 12:51 pm, "Maxwell" > wrote:
>
> > Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
> > happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
> > flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.
>
> Too many pilots think about the wing or windshield, while tail,
> much more lightly constructed, is a really vulnerable section. See the
> picture of the Cherokee on this page:
> http://planeplaces.com/
>
> I've had a few encounters with big birds, and they aren't
> afraid of the airplane. Some, especially hawks and eagles, can get
> aggressive toward airplanes in what they consider their territory. I
> regularly have to dodge hawks, and a few years ago an eagle gave me an
> awful scare. He'd have taken the tail clean off the airplane if he'd
> hit it. Tailless airplanes don't fly well at all.
>
> Dan

Dan, you are SO right!

A friend took a buzzard in the leading edge of his right wing on an
SX-300. It made a hole about 8 inches across (.040 skin) and lodged
inside the wet cell. Fortunately, he had fuel in the left side and was
coming up on a formation "break", landing safely. A couple of weeks
after repairs, he hit an eagle with the wingtip, which removed the
plastic lens and the strobe/wingtip light. We don't know how much damage
the eagle took.

Another friend (also an SX-300) hit a vulture with the top surface of
his left wing. It made a dent, but no fuel was lost, nor was the metal
broken.

I have seen a number of vulture strikes, where the wing leading edge is
smashed all the way to the spar.

Another friend took a vulture in a Bonanza at the top of the left side
of the upper cowl. It destroyed that part of the cowl and made a huge
dent in the firewall. Fortunately, the bird (or what was left of it) did
not penetrate the windshield.

A vulture in the tail assembly of any of these would have brought them
down.

[Roger (K8RI)]

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 11:44:31 -0400, Bob Martin >
wrote:

>Maxwell wrote:
>
>> Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
>> happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
>> flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.
>
>A friend of our once took a songbird in one of the cooling holes on the cowl of his RV-4.
> After he spent a week cleaning burned feathers and guts out from the cylinder fins, we
>stuck a bird silhouette and a "birdman" callsign on his canopy.

My wife and I were taking a couple that have been friends for years on
their first small plane ride (Cherokee 180) about 50 feet above the
runway on climb out a bird went through the prop and appeared to
bounce off the corner of the windshield. I decided to play it safe
and flew a relatively tight pattern and landed.

It must have been a large song bird as the entire area between the two
cylinders on the pilot's side was packed solid. It was fairly well
cooked, but easy to remove and we had no overheating. Had we continued
on there might have been.

I also hit a Seagull just coming in over the numbers. It hit about 3/4
of the way out on the leading edge of the wing. Not even a dent and
when we parked, his buddies were already cleaning up the runway.