Birdstrike

[Guest Cralis]

With regards the news item on this site, 'Darwin a hotspot for birdstrike: aviation survey'

 

 

 

When we took off on Saturday morning in the Tecnam, there were around 6 to 8 of those big white birds with the long beaks .. can't recall their names and as I am new to Australia - I have an excuse for now. :)

 

Anyway, the crossed just below us, but directly in line.

 

Firstly... could hitting one or two cause an issue?

 

Secondly ... the pilot kept the same climb and same heading. I guess the answer is based on the first question, but should you try avoid them?

 

Am I right saying that just past the end of the runway, we're doing around 70knots, which is close to 130km/h... which could hurt a windscreen I'd have thought, but the prop might cause the bird a few problems before it hit the windscreen...

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Bloody oath you want to avoid them.. especially the big ones.. At best you will be cleaning the pink mist off the aeroplane..at worst, well, you can imagine..

 

 

[BLA82]

Personally I have never seen a bird strike in a small aircraft but I can imagine the outcome. But if an airliner hits a bird or few it can end up costing a new engine or worse so I WOULD HATE TO HIT ONE!!!!.

 

 

[Guest pelorus32]

You just don't want to do it. Somewhere on the web you will find the story of a guy flying a single engine aircraft - perhaps a Caravan - in Africa that hit a small raptor.

 

He was single pilot ops but happened to have another company pilot in the rh seat. One of the pilots was quite badly injured. Several of the passengers were injured with one woman losing the sight in one or perhaps both eyes. It was a very salutary story.

 

Avoid them at all costs. I had an Ibis decide to come very close one day. I saw the 4 of them and turned to avoid. His three mates went away from me and he put his flaps and gear down and dived for me. He went through the "hole" where the strut, fuse and wing make a triangle. How he missed the tailplane is beyond me.

 

My experience with birds of prey is that you will often see them at height and they have no interest in moving out of your way - in fact they are quite interested.

 

I was the passenger in a car that hit a Galah at 130km/hr one day. Laminated windscreen was mangled and deformed right in front of me. If the windscreen hadn't been laminated the bird would have come through. 130km/hr roughly equals 70 knots.

 

Regards

 

Mike

 

 

[Matt]

We've had many a near miss with various type, most frequently though are Eagles which I've found tend to hang about between 4000 and 8000 feet and, like Mike mentioned, aren't too concerned with aircraft bearing down on them...despite how colourful and noisy (particularly in our case!) you happen to be. Also had close encounters with Ibis regularly, in fact the last instance was last Wednesday flying from Kyneton to Moorabbin where we were both converging at 2500'...as usual, I was the one who moved to avoid a collision.

 

As discussed above - avoid them at all cost. There are (from memory) some handy hints covered in BAK and similar regarding what actions to take - generally climb and turn (and turn to put the airframe between you and the bird) will do it as most birds will tend to descend / dive in these situations.

 

 

[Guest airsick]

Of course an eagle isn't going to get out of your way Matt. Why would an eagle be scared of a parrot?

 

 

[Guest brentc]

I hit some kind of bird at Moorabbin, don't know what it was, but it was medium in size. I was committed to the takeoff and climbing out at the time. There was no vibration or abnormal operation so I continued to climb and returned after an abreviated circuit. Nil damage on inspection.

 

We had our Cirrus SR22 hit a bird at Tooradin some time ago. No damage to the metal prop however it smashed in the lower cowl slightly causing a patch of paint to come off around 5x5cm.

 

These were lucky occurences of bridstrike, many more have been a lot worse.

 

 

[Guest Cralis]

Bloody oath you want to avoid them.. especially the big ones.. At best you will be cleaning the pink mist off the aeroplane..at worst, well, you can imagine..

Did the bird survive?? :ah_oh: Looks like he's hanging there, pretty relaxed with what just happened.

 

Also, what part of the aircraft is that? Where the right wing joins the fuselage?

 

 

[Guest airsick]

F111 birdstrike

 

Birds can do a lot of damage. Imagine if you were doing 600knots...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[alf jessup]

Some of the boys flying out Thursday to the rig on a S76 chopper whacked a seagull doing 155kts, damage, 20,000 for a new windscreen, 1 less seagull in the world and a Lamey having to wipe the remains off the fuse and the rotor head assembly.

 

Lucky I say, could have been worse.

 

Cheers

 

Alf

 

 

[Yenn]

It is one good reason for not flying straight at takeoff. I have to weave from side to side to see and avoid birds as I climb. This is especially a problem where there are rubbish tips as Ibis love those places. The big danger in my opinion is pelicans, they climb to fantastic heights and don't seem to be able to see dead ahead, they are also heavy.

 

 

[Guest pelorus32]

Of course you could just go to the International Bird Strike Organisation (I kid you not) and look at what they have to say.

 

An interesting paper is here:

 

http://www.int-birdstrike.org/Warsaw_Papers/IBSC26%20WPSA1.pdf

 

Regards

 

Mike

 

 

[Guest Cralis]

Wow!

 

I read a few of those bird strick accident reports. Man... it's worse than I thought. If I had read that before my flight, I may have ducked a bit more while we flew between then. :raise_eyebrow:

 

The one about the student pilot pushing on the controls to avoid birds... then the instructor taking control and pulling hard back up - over stressing the wings and causing the accident is pretty bad. But.. maybe not a bird strike cause and shouldn't be included?

 

 

[Tomo]

Gee:ah_oh: I just read the article, I didn't know it was that bad....

 

 

[octave]

Yikes, just read this article and I am just off for some coastal flying.:ah_oh: May have to don my pelican proof vest. On a more serious note this article was an eye opener and it will certainly be on my mind whilst flying today!

 

 

[Guest ROM]

Quite a few years ago a number of gliders were slope soaring the eastern ridges of the Grampians in west Vic.

 

A wood construction glider was attacked by and was eventually hit by an irate wedgie.

 

The wedgie's impact smashed right through the D nose of the wing and finished up against the spar.

 

It is quite common to come across hawks and eagles 5 or 6 thousand feet up when working thermals on cross country glider flights.

 

Usually they will just look you over and work the thermal with you but with a lot better results.

 

However during the mating and nesting season things can turn very nasty and one usually proceeds with care during that period if you spot a hawk or eagle or pairs of these who will often be found soaring together in the same thermal

 

Watching a large and irate hawk or eagle coming at you head-on with their wings folded back and the talons extended right out ahead on large feathered legs and then swishing over the canopy with inches to spare at a closing rate of 100 plus knots promotes a very serious case of seat button nibbling.

 

Just waiting those next couple of seconds for that possible bang as he hits the T tailed elevators can lead to a very rapid acquiring of religion.

 

Haven't ascertained the attacker's view on this but the message that comes across is that you are required to get the hell off his patch and fast!

 

 

[Tomo]

Did the bird survive?? :ah_oh: Looks like he's hanging there, pretty relaxed with what just happened.Also, what part of the aircraft is that? Where the right wing joins the fuselage?

G'day Craig, was just on google images looking up bird striked aircraft and came across this one, so I found out what it was off...:big_grin:

 

It's off a T-44a King Air airplane, and its hit the leading edge of the starboard side near the main fuse.....;)

 

Here are some more pics of the aircraft, and it's victim:laugh:

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

 

 

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

The F111 Pic's are more recent than the ones I recall when I was at 6sqn at Amberley (Green vs Grey) , however the radome results were similar, a late afternoon sorty hit an eagle that was carrying a rabbit. In this case the radome also self destructed, however in the pic above the pitot probe sort of kept everything together. In the one I saw the probe was gone and the composite peeled back like an opening umbrella.... That the crew saw enough to land was amazing..,

 

Also in QLD dont only focus on birds.... bats are also an issue... though they should be less of an issue for RAA pilots due to differing work hours...

 

Andy