bird strikes

[cap235629]

Making it's way around Arkansas Wing
       

        From: Harrell Clendenin [mailto:ifly@conwaycorp.net]
        Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 9:47 AM
        To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
        Subject: Baptist Bird Strike

        All,

        Saturday evening Baptist Med-Flight departed Memphis enroute back to Little Rock without a patient.  Med Flight struck a flock of birds around the Forrest City area and made an emergency landing.  The pilot suffered some minor injuries and everyone was shaken up.  Attached are the pictures from the incident and the associated damages that occurred to their aircraft.  Med-Flight does not wear helmets and the crew is lucky the pilot's vision remained intact to land the aircraft.

        I don't know how many actually keep their visor screen down during all operations, but the following pictures may change your thoughts.  Please note the debris patterns that transitioned into the patient compartment of the aircraft.

        I highly encourage the practice of visors down during all operations and these pictures are the reasons why.

         

        Be safe.
medflight 1
medflight 2
medflight 3
medflight 4
medflight 5
medflight 6
medflight 7
medflight 8
medflight 9
medflight 10
medflight 11
medflight 12
medflight 13
medflight 14
medflight 15
medflight 16

Talk about a bad day

[cap235629]

sorry links aren't working

[NIN]

Try these: http://www.alecbuck.com/mediagallery/album.php?aid=2621&page=1

[NIN]

Having hit a bird in flight with a helicopter, I can tell you its no laughing matter. 

We had a small bird, like a magpie or something, come up under the rotor system while in cruise flight once.  I was working the ramp when I heard this *thump* sound that resonated thru the whole aircraft and I looked up to see my pilots both head down over the center console ducking.  Sure enough, this bird had impacted the center window up near the corner of the frame.  Didn't do a thing to the window or the aircraft (fairly small bird), thankfully, but the whole forward crown and forward rainshield had bird guts and feathers streaked on them when we landed.

I can only imagine what a bigger bird like a goose might have done.

Betcha Med Flight invests in some quality Gentex gear in the next 30 days..

[Al Sayre]

Bird strikes aren't fun, I've had 2, both in airplanes, no personnel injuries. 1 was fairly large and at night on final, probably an owl, took out the fiberglass wing tip.  It felt like I hit a speed bump and scared the crap out of me and my passengers.  The other was a flock of sparrows or starlings on takeoff at dusk - big mess, but thankfully, no damage to the aircraft.

[♠SARKID♠]

Humor begs me to say "Aflac", but that's as serious as a heart attack.  Real good that everyone's okay.  Maybe I'm just ignorant but I never would have considered a helicopter going fast enough to have a bird punch through the window.  Whats the average crusing speed of a chopper like that?

[pixelwonk]

Humor begs me to say "Aflac"...

Well at least I wasn't the only one to think that.
Still, it's sobering.

[♠SARKID♠]

Humor begs me to say "Aflac"...

Well at least I wasn't the only one to think that.
Still, it's sobering.

Strange minds think alike...

[NIN]

An AS350 can do about 150-160mph as a matter of general course, but when you're sluffing along down low, you're want to be back in the 120 range to be compatible with traffic and not get surprised by hazards.

Still, whack a bird at 120mph and tell me how that feels. Cuz hitting one at 150 is still going to be pretty darn bad.

(I was doing some formation flying a couple months ago with a falcon over my DZ... that was fun, but it caused me to think hard about what might happen if I collided with a falcon under my 25mph parachute..)

[bosshawk]

I had a minor bird strike once, when a small bird came through the prop arc in my Bonanza and glanced off the upper windshield.  I ducked.

Had large bird impact the spinner on an OV-1 Mohawk in Korea.  Didn't see or feel it, but saw the remains adhering to the spinner.  Six inches lower and we would have lost a turbine.

[♠SARKID♠]

An AS350 can do about 150-160mph as a matter of general course, but when you're sluffing along down low, you're want to be back in the 120 range to be compatible with traffic and not get surprised by hazards.

Still, whack a bird at 120mph and tell me how that feels. Cuz hitting one at 150 is still going to be pretty darn bad.

(I was doing some formation flying a couple months ago with a falcon over my DZ... that was fun, but it caused me to think hard about what might happen if I collided with a falcon under my 25mph parachute..)

Wow, I never thought of them going that fast...

[jimmydeanno]

An AS350 can do about 150-160mph as a matter of general course, but when you're sluffing along down low, you're want to be back in the 120 range to be compatible with traffic and not get surprised by hazards.

Still, whack a bird at 120mph and tell me how that feels. Cuz hitting one at 150 is still going to be pretty darn bad.

(I was doing some formation flying a couple months ago with a falcon over my DZ... that was fun, but it caused me to think hard about what might happen if I collided with a falcon under my 25mph parachute..)

Wow, I never thought of them going that fast...

Also have to take into consideration the velocity of the bird.  According to this: http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Wilson/v093n01/p0121-p0124.pdf
a canada goose flys at aproximately 45MPH, add that to the speed above and you have a 200 MPH collision with a watermelon.

[flynd94]

I took a bird (candian goose) through the wind screen while flying freight out of Reno.  It went through the right sided and, put a huge dent in the metal bulkhead behind the seats.  Thank god it was single pilot, freight dog.  Scared the heck out of me.

I had a fellow classmate  at CoEx take a bird in his number 1 engine after takeoff out of Newark.  FOD'd the engine.  He said you could smell cooked bird.

I cringe every time in the terminal environment when birds are around.

[hatentx]

is it bird strike pictures that you want??  These are all helos, during my last deployment, Bird in a rocket pod.  was there about 3 days man it smelled

In the second picture what you cant see is the blood trail from the front of the Aircraft all the way past the engine... needless to say we had to replace a few things

[tarheel gumby]

Never had a bird strike in an aircraft of any type, but I can say a bird strike @ 60 mph bird strike on a 1974 Dodge Monaco. It tore the drivers side mirror off of the car. and left bird bits down the side of the car.

[NIN]

I never thought much about a birdstrike on the PNVS or TADS, but man, what a mess.

At least on Chinooks, we had those big honking FOD screens to keep the big pieces out of the inlet throat.

There are a couple spindly bits on the Apache that would be unhappy to have coated in bird entrails and such.

[Ned]

I was barely able to avoid a bird strke here in California.

Last fall, the shop steward for my laying hens told me that they did not intend to produce their allotted egg quota in the event Proposition 2 did not pass.

Thank goodness tragedy was avoided.

[wingnut55]

A Kamikaze Pigeon hit my Cessna 150 it produced a 6 inch deep by 8 inch wide dent in the leading edge of the left wing.

how much does a pigeon weigh when you hit it going 100mph.

I was not flying the plane at the time

[stratoflyer]

Real funny Ned. 

[genejackson]

I've had several in 35+ years but the absolutely most memorable one was at 9000' over RDU one dark night, hard IFR and about 11:30pm.  Whatever it was came through the prop of our C-177 Cardinal and then to the right side of the windscreen.   Part of him came inside with blood and crap everywhere.   When I finally landed, I couldn't tell who left more poop inside the plane, him or me.