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Bird Strikes Anyone?


Flyinrock

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Hit a seagull outside of Sarasota once, patrolling fiber optic cables and was maneuvering around the interstate crossing when I looked up and he was about three feet from the right side windscreen. Loud noise but I never saw him after the strike. Most birds I have encountered dive for the ground when you get close enough. No damage or remnants that I could find.

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  • 3 years later...

This may be common knowledge for some but I had to figure it out on my own. Be careful around landfills, ridiculous amounts of birds there.

 

Also, sea birds seem to be much more unpredictable and a pain in the ass than buzzards etc.

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Another bird story, kind of funny, I am taking off yesterday and a turkey was flying at us from the left side where I couldn't see it, for some reason the passenger sees it and thinks it's a duck. Instead of saying "Bird" he says "Duck, duck, duck!", I started looking up wondering WTF he was talking about. :lol:

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My first two strikes were involving owls-while practicing hover maneuvers in the practice area of Stockton airport.

 

The first owl came right at the helicopter from it's nest in the ground, hit the canopy with great force, and right into the main rotor. I only got a glimpse of the owl for a second.... It was gone the next. I could never imagine that owls were that big!

 

The second one occurred in the same airport environment (practice area). This time I was transitioning into forward flight from a hover, when the owl flew right into the top of the rotor disc. More like a dive at the helicopter. Both of these flights occurred during night training.

 

The third strike was the most memorable! I had just transitioned Castle AFB airspace, N/B along HWY 99 at 800 AGL, when I observed the bird gliding at about the same altitude. Both myself and CFI thought it would be safe to bank to the right and keep clear of the bird. It look like a yearling of a vulture or condor. Big and dark in color!

 

As we did so, the bird also banked left and flew right into the helicopter striking the canopy door hinge area (no doors) at the 11 o'clock position. Blood, feathers, and pieces of the bird were all over me, the CFI, and the control panel. We immediately landed in and inspected the aircraft. No debris ever made contact with the tail rotor. Minor damage to the canopy and to the fearing on top of the canopy.

 

Synopsis: All three flights were as a student pilot with CFI on board. The helicopter used at the time of all three bird strikes was the H300C with doors off.. The first two were at night, and the last strike was near lunch time with VFR conditions in the central valley. My safety equipment included: SPH4 Gentex helmet, a Nomex flight suit and gloves, and boots. Be safe! RP

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...Synopsis: All three flights were as a student pilot with CFI on board. The helicopter used at the time of all three bird strikes was the H300C with doors off.. The first two were at night, and the last strike was near lunch time with VFR conditions in the central valley. My safety equipment included: SPH4 Gentex helmet, a Nomex flight suit and gloves, and boots. Be safe! RP

 

Just out of curiosity, while you're all decked out like a race car driver, as a student in a 300, what was your instructor wearing, and what made you dress like that in the first place?

:huh:

 

Most of the CFIs I've flown with, when its hot enough to take the doors off, were wearing shorts, and a t-shirt. One actually got into a roll-over accident, the next time he went up,...shorts and a t-shirt(I would have at least put on a pair of jeans).

:P

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The instructor on THIS flight was a friend of mine, and the report is an interesting read.

 

I've had a bunch of close calls with Hawks and the larger birds but never hit one. I took a barn swallow in the M/R blades once and took something right into the nose gear of a 182RG during the landing flare. None of them were all that bad, mainly just get out inspect and clean. I hope to never have one come through the windscreen though. I used to have an audio recording of an EMS helicopter that took one through the windscreen at night while under NVG's but I'll have to find it.

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One unlucky bird Strike was a big deal this day.

NTSB Identification: CEN09MA117

Nonscheduled 14 CFR Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter

Accident occurred Sunday, January 04, 2009 in Morgan City, LA

Probable Cause Approval Date: 11/24/2010

Aircraft: SIKORSKY S-76C, registration: N748P

Injuries: 8 Fatal, 1 Serious.

 

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this ACC as follows:

 

(1) the sudden loss of power to both engines that resulted from impact with a bird (red-tailed hawk), which fractured the windshield and interfered with engine fuel controls, and

 

(2) the subsequent disorientation of the flight crewmembers, which left them unable to recover from the loss of power.

 

Contributing to the accident were

 

(1) the lack of Federal Aviation Administration regulations and guidance, at the time the helicopter was certificated, requiring helicopter windshields to be resistant to bird strikes;

 

(2) the lack of protections that would prevent the T handles from inadvertently dislodging out of their detents; and

 

(3) the lack of a master warning light and audible system to alert the flight crew of a low-rotor-speed condition.

 

http://www3.ntsb.gov...104X12037&key=1

 

LINK: The FAA Wildlife Strike Database

 

 

Edited by iChris
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Here is Paul's strike with a buzzard in flordia recently.

 

 

The local new story:

 

http://rickseaney.com/2010/02/19/because-its-friday-bird-strike-video-of-buzzard-in-helicopter/

 

 

 

The You Tube video with more details video of damage after the landing:

 

 

 

 

BTW,and not to change the aircraft but,

 

In December 1977, I had a goose strike in a C-402. It struck the pilot side windshield, and came through at night and struck me in the face. Broke my nose, and got two pieces of plexi-glass and one piece of "goose bill" in my left eye.

 

The FAA took the goose (what was left of it) and had it stuffed (as much as possible) to get the approximate size. Estimated as 14 to 16 pounds. I still have the windshield.

 

Be safe,

 

edspilot

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Fruit bats/flying foxes just sort of vaporize when they zoom up through a Huey disk, satisfying "POW!", heh heh heh... Never could find blood, hair or any trace afterwards.

 

Most memorable was a seagull in the Gulf O'Mexico some years back, just east of Exxon's South Marsh 99. Shrimp boat culling catch pulling a smoke-like plume of gulls etc., up to a couple thousand feet behind. Cruising in a Twinstar at 2000, steered around the top-end and climbed over the highest bird seen when somebody late for dinner dropped into view from the right, ahead. A Twinstar cruises a lot faster than a gull, we saw each other at the same time, I rolled more right and pulled up, thought I cleared him- BANG!, lots of wind coming from the nose behind the center pedestal, and 10 years worth of grit and trash started blowing around the cabin.

After landing, found 12 x 18 inch piece just below center of the nose cone pushed in, blood, feathers, etc., smeared down. The nose cone on an Astar/Twinstar is pretty stout, that would have been ugly had it been through the windscreen. Gulls are more solidly built than I thought.

I've seen similar "plumes" of seagulls in the Atlanta area, around landfills.

 

Hawks and buzzards will actively avoid you if they see you coming. You're moving magnitudes faster than their air intercept computer is calibrated for, usually ends up being a rather undignified explosion of activity.

Eagles won't budge, they'll beady eye you right up to their wing tips, turn away or toward you, whatever.

Edited by Wally
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Hawks and buzzards will actively avoid you if they see you coming.
That's not quite my experience. Buzzards just seem to ignore me, and I've never seen one dodge. I usually see at least a dozen on every flight, sometimes large flocks circling, and they just keep on soaring. So far I've managed to avoid them, and while I've probably hit well over a hundred birds over the years, I've never had one come inside. I've exploded them with the tip of the main rotor, I've had them come through the spinning rotors at idle and never ruffle a feather, and pretty much everything in between. I've had them hit the windshield right in front of my eyes without any damage. I've obviously been lucky in this respect, but I try to help by actively looking for birds all the time. My med crew is used to hard banks, because I don't always see them in time to bank gracefully.
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Buzzards do a birdy-type snap roll to inverted, wings collapsed, and flap like crazy in all directions downward. You have to be way closer than one would get on purpose, slightly higher when they see you. Bad news in that case is that there's almost always more on that patch of rising air.

Edited by Wally
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Buzzards do a birdy-type snap roll to inverted, wings collapsed, and flap like crazy in all directions downward. You have to be way closer than one would get on purpose, slightly higher when they see you. Bad news in that case is that there's almost always more on that patch of rising air.

Maybe Texas buzzards are different, I don't know, but I've been much closer to buzzards than I wanted to be, and I've never seen one do anything other than keep on soaring. They don't seem to be afraid of anything. Pelicans can also be a problem, even far inland. I've seen huge flocks of them over some lakes.
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Just out of curiosity, while you're all decked out like a race car driver, as a student in a 300, what was your instructor wearing, and what made you dress like that in the first place?

:huh:

 

Most of the CFIs I've flown with, when its hot enough to take the doors off, were wearing shorts, and a t-shirt. One actually got into a roll-over accident, the next time he went up,...shorts and a t-shirt(I would have at least put on a pair of jeans).

:P

 

CFI was a C-47 driver for ANG next door at Stockton... They live in their safety equipment. RP

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Just out of curiosity, while you're all decked out like a race car driver, as a student in a 300, what was your instructor wearing, and what made you dress like that in the first place?

:huh:

 

Most of the CFIs I've flown with, when its hot enough to take the doors off, were wearing shorts, and a t-shirt. One actually got into a roll-over accident, the next time he went up,...shorts and a t-shirt(I would have at least put on a pair of jeans).

:P

 

CFI was a C-47 driver for ANG next door at Stockton... They live in their safety equipment. RP

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