I was flying under the NY Class B near the Tappan Zee bridge a couple of
years ago. There was quite a bit of turbulence so it was difficult to hold
altitude better than 50-100 feet or so. Suddenly (I think I must have been
in some sink at the time) I was looking eyeball to eyeball with a flock of
6-10 Canada Geese, who seemed to appear from nowhere from below the
glareshield. They were slightly to my right, so I banked hard left, and
they did the same thing, I only had a second or so to watch them, but I
will never forget the expression on their faces. I swear they had their
tongues stuck in the sides of their beaks as they concentrated on the
maneuver. I could almost hear them shouting "Turn! Turn! Turn! as they
banked hard to their left, still in formation. We passed with ten feet or
so to spare. I was shaking for five minutes after that one.

An Aztec crashed a few years ago near here. The tailfeathers were found a
quarter mile from the rest of the airframe. There were no feathers or
blood, but the horizontal stabilizer had a big dent in it consistant with a
bird strike. Took the whole tail off. Be careful out there.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:rVHbf.520936$x96.436058@attbi_s72...
Paraphrased from Sport Aviation this month:

Hitting a Canada Goose exerts the same force as dropping a 1000 pound
weight 10 feet.

Yikes! That would make mince-meat out of ANY GA aircraft.

We've got large flocks of (what appear to be) sea gulls congregating on
our field over the last few weeks. At this time of year we also get
flocks of migratory birds (ducks and geese) stopping over, too. The place
looks like a bird sanctuary.

I've come very close to hitting birds, but (knock on a burnt-orange Cessna
dashboard) thus far have gotten away clean. Last night, while landing in
the last glint of twilight, I saw a very large bird go zinging past me
while on short final. There was nothing I could do but cringe...

Anyone ever hit a bird? Anyone got a good bird avoidance plan they'd care
to share?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"