Hit a deer on takeoff roll

[MFRskyknight]

Jackrabbits, deer, class D, oh my...we got 'em all. I was on short final once and saw a coyote squatting on the thousand footers. I'm sure he laughed as he saw me fly past, probably hoping I'd hit his steaming pile I came back around.

 

[The_Russian]

The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.

YES!

 

[cj610]

How many points was it?

 

[Amish RakeFight]

I recall seeing a single deer run across the runway on short final. Although there was still time and runway left to land, I decided to go around. Luckily so, as I flew over the runway several more deer came out of the woods and followed the first.

If you expect deer in the vicinity of a particular airport, you may want to do a low pass and come back around to land. This might help scare them off.

 

[avbug]

There were a few deer standing in between the approach threshold and the numbers. The crazy part was, their color so closely matched the color of the runway, that I didn't see them until I was right over the top of them!

Those Michigan deer, I tell ya...all black with big yellow numbers on their side. Usually you can see them coming in a parking lot or on a football field. But on a runway...they just blend right in. I've always lucked out and got the ones with X's on them instead of numbers, and just assumed the runway was closed...

In San Carlos, AZ, we used to chase the joggers off the runway in the early morning hours or evening just after dark, before we could land. Mostly hospital personnel getting in some exercise, I think. Sometimes they'd get off to the side, and then get back on the runway and jog again after we went by on the low pass. Put on some headphones to listen to music, and they never heard us.

At Chinle, several of our airplanes hit horses one year. Frequent dog packs (carried a handgun for those) on the runway. A bull in our path in New Mexico once. A few locations horses and riders and horses, and once a skunk. Lots of coyotes. The only thing I ever hit were birds, and possibly once a deer while working a wheat field down low. (I know I saw it poke it's head up right in front of me, but don't know what happened to it).

You did well to walk away; airplanes are beer cans with wheels, and don't take well to striking things at any speed above that of molasses.

 

[TOOL CRIB]

Those Michigan deer, I tell ya...all black with big yellow numbers on their side. Usually you can see them coming in a parking lot or on a football field. But on a runway...they just blend right in. I've always lucked out and got the ones with X's on them instead of numbers, and just assumed the runway was closed...

Yellow numbers on a runway? Maybe in Detroit with the smog?!

Anyway the important question was, being in North Dakota and all, did you (the original poster) eat the dang deer for dinner?

 

[J.C.Airborne]

Yellow numbers on a runway? Maybe in Detroit with the smog?!

Anyway the important question was, being in North Dakota and all, did you (the original poster) eat the dang deer for dinner?

No...apparently i only got his ears and tail. They never found the deer.

 

[Photoflight]

I was landing at a podunk airport in OK a few years back and about 8 hogs were on the runway...I'm glad I saw em, those things a fairly stout....glad to hear yourok.

 

[cj610]

A few years back, a person hit a deer at Ann Arbor Airport(MI) with a PA-28. It was just before hunting season(Bow and Arrow). The joke was...it was the first deer taken with an Arrow that year.

 

[Northern Lights]

I hit a deer tonight on takeoff roll in a pa-28. Right strut is smashed to bits and the leading edge will need some work but other than pretty mild damage. Be careful out there guys when landing at night. no runway is always safe. The airport i landed on is tower controlled and has high fences around it. Class D airspace.

Glad you're ok. So afterwards did you have to have a little chat with DS?