Deer Strike

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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____________________

"John T" wrote

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.

Bummer. I'll bet that it gets very expensive, before it is all over and
done.

I think that deer stand along a road/runway, and say, "OK, let's see who can
make it over there last, and get closest to the car/plane, without getting
hit!"

Thing is, they are lousy judges of how close they can get. ;-(
--
Jim in NC

"Morgans" wrote in message news:OrOKg.3456

Thing is, they are lousy judges of how close they can get. ;-(


There's nothing in their brains that can reconcile another creature moving
at 45-60 mph.

"John Gaquin" wrote in message
. ..
There's nothing in their brains that can reconcile another creature moving
at 45-60 mph.

You say that based on what facts?

It may well be outside that particular deer's experience, or the deer may
well just be a poor judge of closing rate (especially in the dark with the
primary object viewed being an artificial light source). But I see no
reason to think that deer are inherently unable to comprehend and correctly
respond to another object moving 45-60 mph. What makes you think that they
are?

Pete

Because it is as fast as they move and when they meet a
faster predator (mountain lion or wolf) they get eaten.
When they meet humans they are either fed by slow walking
people or shot by fast moving bullets.



"Peter Duniho" wrote in
message ...
| "John Gaquin" wrote in message
| . ..
| There's nothing in their brains that can reconcile
another creature moving
| at 45-60 mph.
|
| You say that based on what facts?
|
| It may well be outside that particular deer's experience,
or the deer may
| well just be a poor judge of closing rate (especially in
the dark with the
| primary object viewed being an artificial light source).
But I see no
| reason to think that deer are inherently unable to
comprehend and correctly
| respond to another object moving 45-60 mph. What makes
you think that they
| are?
|
| Pete
|
|

"Jim Macklin" wrote in message
news:mVSKg.6853$SZ3.1572@dukeread04...
Because it is as fast as they move and when they meet a
faster predator (mountain lion or wolf) they get eaten.

Using that logic, humans are incapable of processing those kinds of speeds
as well.

Either your logic is incorrect, or we shouldn't be flying airplanes.

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"John Gaquin" wrote in message
. ..
There's nothing in their brains that can reconcile another creature
moving at 45-60 mph.

You say that based on what facts?


Observable behavior, and an explanation offered some years ago by a game
warden in response to essentially the same question.

If you have acceptable facts upon which to refute such a claim, please share
them.

Observable behavior, and an explanation offered some years ago by a game
warden in response to essentially the same question.

In other words, nothing, and the voice of authority. We live among deer
here too, and I've observed them. Nothing in their observable behavior
indicates an inability to "reconcile" (whatever that means) another
creature moving at 45-60 mph. I do wonder if deer crash into each other
in the forest, but I have not mounted deer-cams in sufficient quantity
to get any useful information.

If you have acceptable facts upon which to refute such a claim, please share
them.

The Great Spaghetti Monster (bless his noodley appendages) told me so.

Jose
--
The monkey turns the crank and thinks he's making the music.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"John Gaquin" wrote in message
. ..
There's nothing in their brains that can reconcile another creature
moving at 45-60 mph.

You say that based on what facts?

Observable behavior, and an explanation offered some years ago by a game
warden in response to essentially the same question.

People get run over by cars all the time. That doesn't prove that "there's
nothing in their brains that can reconcile another object [creature] moving
at 45-60 mph". It just proves that an individual human misjudged the
situation.

Your game warden reference is meaningless, assuming he just a
run-of-the-mill game warden, as opposed to one that has done some sort of
in-depth biological study of the brain responses of deer (frankly, I doubt
*anyone* has done such a study, but I think it's a safe guess your game
warden hasn't).

If you have acceptable facts upon which to refute such a claim, please
share them.

I claim that you are in fact a hideous, green oozing monster who simply
pretends to be human. You are disguised with a supernatural effect that not
only hides your genuine appearance, it prevents you from even knowing your
true identity. In fact, the supernatural effect is known ONLY to me, for
reasons unknown even to me.

If you have acceptable facts upon which to refute my claim, please share
them.

Pete

Peter Duniho wrote:

"John Gaquin" wrote in message
. ..
There's nothing in their brains that can reconcile another creature moving
at 45-60 mph.

You say that based on what facts?

It may well be outside that particular deer's experience, or the deer may
well just be a poor judge of closing rate (especially in the dark with the
primary object viewed being an artificial light source). But I see no
reason to think that deer are inherently unable to comprehend and correctly
respond to another object moving 45-60 mph. What makes you think that they
are?

Well, having grown up in Pennsyvania, it's certainly in my experience. In the
daytime, deer can watch you driving right towards them at 45, whatever, and they
stay put. In the nighttime, it's the same thing, except YOU can't see them
until they are well in your headlights, and the deer are often on the side of
the road until you get there. Even living in an area at the moment without much
deer, I still am on guard driving at night through the woods, particularly in
the fall when deer seem to get more active. Although I didn't hunt, I was
always happy when rifle season got started. Because deer have few predators
left other than man, their herds have gotten out of control, and too many deer
can do great damage to the environment as they strip foliage and bush and kill
small trees, which then leaves the landscape bare to errode away.

I once stopped completely on a two lane highway for a lone deer parked next to
the double yellow line. It didn't budge. I tapped the horn. It curiously
looked at me. Next I turned off the headlights. Then I turned off all the
lights. Eventually it slowly wandered off. I moved forward slowly until I was
confident her unseen friends were behind me. (Deer usually travel in packs).

I'm not sure how to really avoid deer when landing, other than luck and finding
an airport with a very tall fence (deer can jump very high and can also swim
amazingly well) . I've heard of overflying the field before landing at night,
but I'm not sure this would work, since even if they were scared and moved away
(hah!) deer could merely move on to the runway while you're on downwind again.

Now moose, that's a different story. Deer will damage your car/plane and will
get injured/killed if you collide. With moose *YOU* get injured/killed if you
collide.