What is the Service Ceiling of a Bird?

[DrewBlows]

What's the highest you have seen a bird? Altitude affects birds the same way it affects airplanes, less air means less performance. I suppose some of the larger birds with high aspect ratio wings could glide very high, as they would not have to expend a lot of energy.

On another note, flys seem to have a hard time flying at 8,000' cabin pressure altitude. I don't know if it's the altitude or their failure to cope with the rapid change in altitude. Perhaps a fly who lives in Colorado would be acclimated to the altitude.

 

[Rally]

Are you telling or asking? Nice hypotheses.

"The highest-flying bird ever recorded was a Ruppell's griffon, a vulture with a wingspan of about 10 feet; on November 29, 1975, a Ruppell's griffon was sucked into a jet engine 37,900 feet above the Ivory Coast--more than a mile and a half higher than the summit of Mount Everest. The plane was damaged, though it landed safely"

 

[WabiSabi]

Pilots are geeks!

 

[Swass]

They can soar mountain waves pretty high. There have been some stories of glider guys here that have seen them very high (posted a couple of years ago).

 

[Big Duke Six]

I've hit BIG insects at 17,000 over Wyoming before. Not sure what they were since I never saw one, but they left huge white/yellow streaks. They seemed to be in groups too.

 

[DrewBlows]

Are you telling or asking? Nice hypotheses.

I'm asking. I've never seen a bird above about 5000', but I've observed flys in the cockpit that seemed to have trouble flying. I don't know why they have trouble flying, only that they do. For all I know they have been sucked though an avionics cooling fan and are injured from the ride, or maybe they aren't used to the altitude. I've flown a tired C150 that didn't seem to be used to the altitude above 2000'.

And I'm bored out of my freaking mind.

 

[Publishers]

Most of the high flyers got blasted up there on thermals or waves.

 

[Rally]

I'm asking. I've never seen a bird above about 5000', but I've observed flys in the cockpit that seemed to have trouble flying. I don't know why they have trouble flying, only that they do. For all I know they have been sucked though an avionics cooling fan and are injured from the ride, or maybe they aren't used to the altitude. I've flown a tired C150 that didn't seem to be used to the altitude above 2000'.

And I'm bored out of my freaking mind.

A couple wierd stories. I hit a bird in the winter time in florida at night (9:00 pm) at 4500. Scared the crap out of me broke a few bafflings on the engine luckily before it hit the windsheild it hit the spiner and spun off, or i probably would'nt be talking to you right now. Size on the estimation from the marks was probably geese size. The other bird I hit (really small) was on rotation at night in the rain. As far as flies, had one in the cockpit one time got up to 7500 fell asleep then on descent woke up again, it was kind strange for sure.

 

[jafo20]

That's one of the coolest Qs I've heard in a while! I asked some of my biologist friends about the fly. Here are some of the answers they gave me:

Teensy wings (smaller than half an inch in chord or span) are dependent on viscosity more than Bernoulli. Perhaps altitude affects these wings more than ours.

Others have said the flies, being cold blooded, require more oxygen/body mass to rapidly beat their wings.

I'm not sure how much difference there is in fly/bird/aircraft performance relative to altitiude. Since flies are cold blooded, they have a lot less energy available at cold temps. If the sun can warm them up at high alt, I've seen them perform in the mid teens. For example, there are flies in the trash cans of the little rest area at the continental divide, on the Trail Ridge Road at Rocky Mountain National park. So flies can make at least 14000msl.

Birds: Condors fly in the Andes to high teens low 20s. Even though they ridge soar, they also roost on high, Andean peaks, so they have to be able to eek out some kind of initial climb before riding an updraft.

If someone can get a definitive answer to this, please PM me. I'm totally interested.

 

[erj-145mech]

What's the highest you have seen a bird? Altitude affects birds the same way it affects airplanes, less air means less performance. I suppose some of the larger birds with high aspect ratio wings could glide very high, as they would not have to expend a lot of energy.

.

I repaired a G-I that took a goose at 17,000 on Victor 20 over south Louisanna on the radome. It took out the radome, radar antenna, forward bulkhead, and came to rest on the nose gear. Blood, guts and feathers everywhere. A real mess.