A goose at fl360????

[hollidayt]

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** Report created 11/4/2005 Record 3 **
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IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: UPS28 Make/Model: B757 Description: B-757
Date: 11/03/2005 Time: 2325

Event Type: Incident Highest Injury: None Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
City: COLORADO SPRINGS State: CO Country: US

DESCRIPTION
ACFT, UPS28, A B757, ENROUTE FROM SDF TO MHR, STRUCK A GOOSE AT FL360.
ACFT DESCENDED TO FL280, DUE TO THE WINDSHIELD BEING CRACKED AND CONTINUED
ON TO DESTINATION. PILOT DID NOT DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. OVER COLORADO
SPRINGS, CO

INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
# Crew: 4 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

WEATHER: NOT REPORTED

OTHER DATA
Activity: Business Phase: Cruise Operation: Air Carrier

Departed: LOUISVILLE, KT SDF Dep Date: Dep. Time:
Destination: SACRAMENTO, CA MHR Flt Plan: UNK Wx Briefing: U
Last Radio Cont: UNKN
Last Clearance: UNKN

FAA FSDO: DENVER, CO (NM03) Entry date: 11/04/2005

 

[Flying Illini]

The goose had a good tailwind and low fuel flows at that altitude.

Crew is all relaxed...drinking coffee, maybe having a snack, BSing about everything, enjoying the view and the sunshine...then WHAM!!! "OH crap!!" "WTF?!" coffee spilled, snacks strewn about. I probably would have wet myself on top of everything.

Glad it didn't go through the windshield.

 

[bafanguy]

I guess a goose has a different TUC than humans ??

 

[Lead Sled]

I've been goosed at FL360. Does that count? Seeing the part of the country it occurred in, my guess is was that goose was simply out getting some soaring time in and working the wave. Once I hit a duck at 14,000' in a Cessna 421 over Western Colorado, it broke the windshield.

'Sled

 

[KigAir]

That goose had one good set of lungs.

 

[FL000]

from Ducks Unlimited, Canada

Up, Up and Away

• Flying at higher altitudes makes for greater flying efficiency and less flying time. In fact, some migratory birds have been recorded at altitudes between 1.5 and six kilometres (5,000 to 20,000 feet).

and just for fun:

Here are some other interesting group names for birds:

• A "murder" of crows
• A "parliament" of owls
• A "tiding" or "charm" of magpies
• An "exaltation" of larks
• An "unkindness" of ravens

 

[av8er23]

Wow, I would have guessed that was impossible for a bird to fly that high.

 

[MD80DRVR]

I found this on another site:

"The bird that flies highest most regularly is the bar-headed goose Anser indicus, which travels directly over the Himalayas en route between its nesting grounds in Tibet and winter quarters in India. They are sometimes seen flying well above the peak of Mt. Everest at 29,035 ft. Birds have some natural advantages for getting oxygen at high altitudes, in particular an arrangement of air sacs that allows them to circulate inhaled air twice through the lungs with each breath--much more efficient than the in-and-out system used by mammals. Bar-headed geese have special adaptations that make them even better at high-flying than other birds. They have a special type of hemoglobin that absorbs oxygen very quickly at high altitudes, and their capillaries penetrate especially deep within their muscles to transfer oxygen to the muscle fibers.
Other high flying birds include whooper swans, once observed by a pilot at 27,000 feet over the Atlantic between Iceland and Europe, and bar-tailed godwits (a shorebird), which have been seen at almost 20,000 feet. The record for North America is a mallard duck that collided with an airplane at 21,000 feet above Elko, Nevada in July, 1963. Most birds, though, fly lower--waterfowl typically at between 200-4,000 feet, and small songbirds at between 500-2,000 feet. However, the tiny Blackpoll warbler will fly up to 16,000 feet high in order to catch favorable winds on migration between Canada and South America. I'm not sure how well a sparrow would do, but similar-sized birds are quite capable of flying very high indeed."

 

[moving2vegas]

Goose @ FL360= BS

 

[Lead Sled]

Goose @ FL360= BS

Dang right! Not one bird that I'm aware of has received RVSM certification, therefore they are limited to FL280 and below.

'Sled