Worst Bird Strikes

[Birdstrike]

The post below is from the Just Helicopters BB. Interesting observation; this guy has had 100 birdstrikes in 45 years of flying. "Course being lower and slower in helos probably accounts for much of that. My worst was a turkey buzzard embedded on my upper wire strike cutter that just missed the windshield during training in Alabama. Anyone had any bad experiences? Which places are the worst?

"...Don't know of empirical data...just personal experience with bird strikes. Have seen birds come thru glass. Have seen them come thru plastic. I've had numerous birds come thru the plastic into the cockpit with me in both airplanes and helicopters. I've had them glance off my helmet and left feather oil smears on the side of it. I know of one incident, that I took pics of, when a pelican came thru the glass of a P2V out of NAS North Island during takeoff/departure. The CP ducked and the bird went thru the wall into the radio compartment and the crew had to kill it with a fire ax!

I've had pigeons, ducks, hawks, and pheasants come in for a visit. Saw what happened when a tern came into the cockpit of an R-22 near Palo Alto at night. Lucky there were no injuries to CFI or student. Sure was messy though. Got pics of that too. A duck came into the cockpit of my Hiller 12ET and when it got over the initial shock, began flying around in the cockpit. I was only about 5'agl at the time on a spray run. Was able to knock it down into the chin bubble where it stayed until I could land and patch the hole. Best guess is I've had probably 100 bird strikes in 45 years of flying. In my opinion, its more a matter of how/where the strike takes place regardless of glass or plastic. For my part, I'll take the helmet any day, or night!..."

 

[avbug]

Conservatively, several thousand birds during low level, mostly when spraying. Mostly small ones, most didn't do much damage. A few made it into the cockpit, most bounced off the airplane, or got wedged in some small space. The automatic flagman always seemed to pick up a sparrow or even part of a starling through the ram air inlet. Birds were always getting wrapped around spray nozzles, and jammed just about anywhere a bird could get jammed.

I posted about it here not long ago, but last year I had a radome shattered by a bird at night outside LAS, and a copilot windscreen. Something went through the propeller and hit the windscreen, but didn't break it, late at night in a 182 I was ferrying once. It made a big bang, but I didn't find anything until I landed. The front of the airplane was covered in blood; whatever it was must have been fairly large.

I had the leading edge of a Cessna 210 peeled back to the spar by a falcon. It didn't fly any differently, but was an expensive repair.

I also used to get bird parts in the cockpit when spraying quite a bit. They'd make it past the prop and strike the blade cutter assembly on the forward windscreen. The purpose of the cutter is to guide and hopefully break phone or power lines, past the cockpit. A cable is supposed to pick it up from there if it doesn't break, and guide it past the vertical stab so that the vertical stab doesn't get cut off. The birds would sometimes strike the blade and get cut in two; one half othe bird would go past one side of my head, one past the other. Sometimes the bird would ride the cutter to the top of the cockpit, where over head there was a fresh air scoop. The bird would enter that and explode. The scoop emptied down the back of my shirt or flight suit.

Aside from a mist of feathers flying around the cockpit, it was a little like having a little meat grinder above and behind that dumped fresh pulverized bones and guts down my collar.

Once in a great while they'd go in the fresh air vents near the wing roots and do the same thing.

I flew with a much older gentleman a long time ago who had been spraying since just before Moses got his own pilot certificate. That individual had been in a N3N doing dust, when a mormon cricket (which is fairly large and and chunky) went in his mouth and made it to the back of his throat. He started hacking and coughing and trying to spit it out, but with all the little sharp pointy grabby parts, it wasn't moving. It was struggling quite a bit, too. He tried swallowing it, but that wasn't working, either. By his own account, it took nearly 15 minutes to finish out his sulphur load and return to load at the airport, during which time he finally managed to swallow the cricket.

The story was pretty funny when he told it. He's dead now. I don't think the cricket had anything to do with it.

On a fire in Florida a few years ago, I was descending out of smoke, and looking for other aircraft over the fire. I knew I'd be seeing a leadplane, and called it when I spotted it. The leadplane was flying a little tighter than I expected, and was a little farther than I expected, and a little erratic. I never hit them, but what I first thought was our contact was a turkey vulture, and then another, and another. Really big birds. I imagine that had we bumped one, it could have fairly easily joined us in the cockpit. A skycrane did get one; took it in one intake, and had to replace the engine. No thanks.

 

[Birdstrike]

Conservatively, several thousand birds during low level, mostly when spraying...

Just curious, do you wear a helmet when you spray?

 

[avbug]

You betcha. With the visor down. I don't spray at night, so I only have a tinted visor. I don't do well with bright lights, and wear the visor for that reason as well.

My current helmet is a HGU-55P with earcups instead of elephant ears. I have Oregon Aero inside to make it more wearable, and use an external boom mic. Standard HGU-55 is just (fiber)glass; I ordered mine Kevlar.

(As a side note, the Kevlar is a lot stiffer in cold weather...when it's cool, I've had to rest my helmet over my knee for a while before I could flex it enough to put it on)

I don't wear it primarily for the bird protection, however. Nor for crash protection, though that's an important reason to wear one. Down low, it's not uncommon, especially when working in the hills, to get banged around some; the helmet is there to keep my head from getting slapped against the canopy when I'm getting knocked around during normal flying.

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

No damage to the airplane but the messiest one was years ago in a Be-58 freighter. At rotation a whole flock of tweety bird sized critters decided they needed to be on the other side of the airport. I could actually see the left propeller arc cutting a swath out of the flock.....until the windshied was covered with guts. Must have taken out 30 or 40 of the little buggers.

When I got on the ground I had to dig 3 fully cooked tweeties off the top of the cyclinders. The airplane looked like it was used to slaughter cattle. Had blood and guts from the radome all the way back, with chunks of bird and feathers wedged in every crack and crevace. The stink!! You wouldn't think a tweety bird could stink so bad. When I got back to home base (did a quick clean up at the next stop) the airplane still looked like a crime scene.

 

[Lead Sled]

Anyone had any bad experiences?

There are bird strikes and then there are bird strikes. It's a very common occurance; but, more often than not, it's the luck of the draw as to whether it causes any damage or not. A few years back a goose went through the canopy of an F-4 landing at Mountain Home AFB. The guy in the back seat was able to land the airplane. If I remember correctly the guy in the front seat was either killed or very seriously injured. Then there was the B-1B that the USAF lost a few years ago from a bird strike. I forget now what the exact figure is, but every year the USAF averages something over $100 million on bird strike damage. There have been a lot of civilian losses as well - a few years ago a Turbo-Commander crashed into Lake Michigan after ingesting some birds during takeoff killing everyone on board. There were some pretty graphic pictures of that airplane heading 90 degrees nose down into the lake.

Oh well, enough of the serious stuff...
About three years ago I was departing Meacham Field in Fort Worth, Texas. It was an evening departure and we were deadheading to Houston to pick up some company people then on to Fort Lauderdale. Just prior to V1 something darted out in front of us and we hit it. We aborted the takeoff and taxied back to the ramp. The tower controller had someone take a truck out on the runway to see if they could find out what we had struck. They found a 200 pound ferral pig lying dead right on the runway center line! We were extremely lucky, an animal that size, If we had hit it dead on, would have easily taken out our nose or main gear. As it was, he was hit by our nosewheel chine and we suffered no other damage. I spoke with the tower controller on the phone and he mentioned that he had to fill out a special form for the FAA. He asked me to wait while he looked for it, but he couldn't find one so he simply took a "Bird Strike Report" and crossed out the word "Bird" and wrote "Pig". I guess that I'm the only person to have ever filed an FAA Pig Strike Report. The linemen at the airport later said that the BBQ was pretty good!

'Sled

 

[jbDC9]

Stupid tweety birds, always in our way...

My worst bird strike happened at night, 7000 ft enroute OMA-DSM in a C-310R check hauler; cruising along, fat dumb and happy listening to my Walkman when, WHAM! A loud bang and a jolt. Okay, I'm awake now. Checked for damage with a flashlight, but couldn't see anything from my seat... slow down, gradual descent, gentle landing in DSM to check it out. Woof, what a mess, hit 4-5 big birds, probably geese. Took 2 in the horizontal stab, one each side, smashed the leading edges back to the spar; one in the right spinner, mangled the spinner and had cooked (and stinky) bird lodged back on the cylinders; one hit the right wing just out from the nacelle, also pushed the leading edge back to the spar. Needless to say that airplane was done for the night...

So for you Airnet guys flying 223, assuming it hasn't been painted since then... that 'splains why the H stab paint doesn't match and the patch job on the rt wing leading edge.

 

[Stepclimb]

MCAS Quantico, C-130, dusk. Just touched down, throttles coming over the gate into reverse, 40-50 white gulls that were clustered on the d@mn white centerline stripes took off right in front of us. We hit half of them. All four props, wing leading edges, down the intakes etc. A crime scene is an appropriate description.

Of course, no BASH program for the Marines. Their hangars were just full of birds (and droppings). But the best part is taking the garbage bag full of dead bird parts back for the wing safety guys to analyze.
-Stepclimb

avbug: I've flown an N3N before, but can't imagine sitting high enough above the windscreen to take a bug in the mouth. When dusting, do you tend to raise the seat much higher? Out into the slipstream?

 

[scuzzer23]

I spoke with the tower controller on the phone and he mentioned that he had to fill out a special form for the FAA. He asked me to wait while he looked for it, but he couldn't find one so he simply took a "Bird Strike Report" and crossed out the word "Bird" and wrote "Pig". I guess that I'm the only person to have ever filed an FAA Pig Strike Report. The linemen at the airport later said that the BBQ was pretty good!

'Sled

If you look at the remarks section of the A/FD at JWY (midlothian) in TX, it says: Pigs in vicinity of airport. Never heard of anyone hitting one though. I have seen deer on the runway at Lake Whitney, TX. I do a pretty good job of dodging birds. Lots of near misses all the time.

 

[Lead Sled]

If you look at the remarks section of the A/FD at JWY (midlothian) in TX, it says: Pigs in vicinity of airport. Never heard of anyone hitting one though. I have seen deer on the runway at Lake Whitney, TX. I do a pretty good job of dodging birds. Lots of near misses all the time.

I was pretty surprised when we hit the pig. It was dark and I just saw a blur out of the corner of my eye before we hit it. It was a solid thump and I was sure that we had done some damage. As it was, there was no damage to the airplane, but the pig was totaled. The tower controller said that they had a herd of ferral pigs on the airport but they hadn't been a problem previously.

Prior to the pig, my previous personal best was 3 or 4 geese that took off across the runway just as we had lifted off. One of the geese was banded and you could see the imprint of the band on the Lear's leading edge. We had some damage on that one - the Lear 35's recog light was shattered and the frame had peeled back along the tip tank.

We're all the time seeing the smudged remains of starlings and sparrows (?) around the perimeter of the engine inlets. We simply call it "Shredded Tweet"

'Sled

 

[Deerkiller]

not so many birds as of yet, however, look at my name and you'll figure out what "sweet" animal i've had a "run in" with.

 

[Uncle Sparky]

Flying an air-ambulance flight out of JAX one night I hit some Seagulls. The med-team was a "herd", literally, and everywhere we stopped, they had to get food. WE had just left the ground and the airplane started to STINK! I thought that they had just unwrapped some really bad Chinese food, because the plane really stunk like burnt Something! The engine was popping and stalling, so we brought it back and on the ground discovered the culprits(or ex-culprits)splattered all over the wing and intake.

The best one I saw was from the ground in FLL. I watched a 402 on final to 13 slice through a flock of Turkey Buzzards. It took the wing off of one and the bird did a perfect spiral straight down to the pool deck of a busy Hotel on Marina Mile.

 

[avbug]

I never sprayed in the N3N; it was gone from the company when I went to work. Clarence had started in the N3N after WWII, where he finished as a B-17 pilot. He purchased the N3N, and a few years later had a boat load of airplanes that travelled between Texas and the Dakotas doing spray work. At various times, he had two B-25's spraying, and a Cataline PBY. He had some fifteen T-6's, a variety of Calairs, Braves, Pawnees, Ag Trucks, and other dedicated ag airplanes. Even two P-51's that never got used for spraying. All got sold before the prices really went up...he used to lament about that all the time. (Could have given up the spray business, just kept the airplanes, and made a fortune one day).

I like to sit up as high as I can. In the Dromader, I bought cushions at Walmart. I have two cushions sewn together behind me, and one underneath. The seat doesn't move, and I need the leverage to get full rudder...which usually isn't an issue except for takeoff and landing.

My first bird strike was as a student pilot. A beautiful male Mallard duck on the gear. One of the line guys retrieved it, and so far as I know, had it mounted.

There's a lot of more interesting things I haven't hit...the most notable to me as a skunk, in a Bonanza. I was really glad I didn't hit it, too. I've hit chunks of wood in flight, that were flying around over a fire, but haven't suffered any damage of consequence from them. Six tankers over the big fires in southern california last year had broken windscreens as a result of airborne trees, or pieces of them. Chunks as big or bigger than 2X4's aren't uncommon in a hot, thick smoke column.

I've flown behind folks who have gone through a power line or multiple lines, though I've never hit one myself, yet...