The state of Kansas reports about 10,000 deer/vehicle
collision a year, most are cars and trucks. My son lives in
a very rural area and has had several vehicles damaged by
deer, only one carcass recovered.
Be sure to inspect the entire tail cone for remote damage
caused by the lever effect of the strike.
Good idea for all night landings at quiet airports, a noisy
low pass to move the deer away from the runway. Not a
perfect solution, but it should help.
--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P
"John T" wrote in message
m...
| It happened to me August 29, 2006.
|
| I went out for night currency with a short hop to
Winchester, VA (KOKV). I
| flew there VFR since the only clouds in the forecast would
be up in the
| Class A realm. Besides, I don't fly VFR in the DC ADIZ
very often and I
| could use the practice there, too.
|
| The only interesting thing at KOKV were the birds. It's
not often I see
| birds (not bats) flying around well after dark, but there
were a few
| sandpipers flitting around Winchester.
|
| The flight home to Leesburg, VA (KJYO) from my night
currency landings at
| Winchester was uneventful. The landing, on the other
hand, had a bit of a
| surprise in store.
|
| Rounding out on final, I had the numbers nailed and came
in over the
| threshold right at 65 MPH indicated (yes, MPH, not knots).
Just after the
| nose gear touched, I saw a shadow cross the center line
from right to left
| and into the beam of the landing light: Deer! A split
second later came a
| thump and a slight pull to the right which was easily
corrected.
|
| The engine remained running fine with no unusual
vibrations or noises so I
| pulled off the runway at the first turn-off, cleaned up
the aircraft and
| scanned around for damage. As my scan came to the
starboard horizontal
| stabilizer, I saw in the faint light bent metal and busted
fiberglass. It
| was painfully obvious the thump I'd felt was not something
being run over by
| my landing gear as I'd desperately hoped, but rather a
second deer.
|
| I parked the plane in its usual spot and assessed the
damage. Sure enough,
| the starboard stabilizer had its leading corner busted and
bent back with
| the rear corner twisted back over the trim tab. It was
also twisted back
| enough that the corner connecting to the empennage was
pulled out almost 2
| inches. There was wrinkling on the starboard side of the
empennage and
| vertical stabilizer and the beacon was knocked loose from
the fiberglass
| cap. Well, "knocked loose" may be a bit of a misnomer as
there was a bit of
| fiberglass still attached to the beacon which was left
hanging by the power
| cords. The damage to the port side was worse as the force
of the impact
| evidently twisted the entire tail section to the port
side. Also, the impact
| appears to have severed at least one of the control
connections as the
| control lock was in the yoke, but I was able to move the
elevator almost
| from stop to stop.
|
| I walked back to the scene of the impact to pull the
carcass off the
| runway - after all, there's no sense leaving it there for
the next poor soul
| to land - but there was nothing on the runway. Not even a
blood trail. The
| only apparent evidence of the culprit was the appearance
of two pairs of
| green eyes reflecting my flashlight beam at the edge of
the woodline west of
| the field and they ran off when I approached. After the
damage done to the
| plane, I was hoping to have something to at least kick.
|
| All things considered, I was lucky. This may end up being
minor compared to
| the damage that could have been caused had the first deer
struck the prop.
|
| Pics and vids posted on my site for interested parties.
|
| --
| John T
|
http://sage1solutions.com/TknoFlyer
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