Ron Natalie wrote:
Jase Vanover wrote:
I posted yesterday about my first solo, and planned to do some more

uneventful circuits today but ended up having a postable experience
once
again.

Congrats...you did the right thing: Fly the plane (you can freak out

later).

I once took a large bird in the wing and it pushed the leading edge
back
to the spar.

Ron
That sounds pretty interesting. Care to elaborate with specifics? I
know a guy in Ecuador who hit a big condor and it too made a dent that
went back to the spar. He landed, checked the damage, then took off
again to fly to home base down on the coast in Guayaquil for repairs.
The kicker was, he landed at Cuenca which is at about 8000msl and took
off again! It was in a Navion. I know the airplane and saw the photos.
Still shake my head at that.
In my many years of flying, I think/know I've hit hundreds of birds of
varying size, make and model. Had several come into the cockpit with
me. I hit the most with helicopters while crop dusting though.