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Bird strike accidents and discussion (merged)

We hit a small bird in my wife’s Grumman Tiger while landing in Kansas City a few years ago. It didn’t do any damage, but the airfield ops people did go up the runway and found the unfortunate bird’s corpse (apparently the catalogue these things) and identified the species and size (I don’t remember the species, but it was a small bird).

I almost hit a pelican once in a C172 while approaching Galveston Scholes. That would have made a mess.

On wood spars, one thing to be careful of is wingtip strikes – they can cause compression fractures without leaving any serious-looking damage on the outside. This destroys the strength of the spar. Someone I knew had this happen to them in a Taylorcraft, and were very lucky to get back on the ground. There’s another guy who wasn’t so lucky who ended up in a fatal AAIB report when the wing came off (neither of these were birds, the Taylorcraft was with a pole, and the Robin in the AAIB report was a hay bale).

Last Edited by alioth at 14 Jun 09:02
Andreas IOM

alioth wrote:

the Taylorcraft was with a pole, and the Robin in the AAIB report was a hay bale

Wouldn’t that cause damage on a metal spar wing as well? Maybe not so that they come off in flight at once, but still…

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

A metal spar may get buckled in a severe case but even if that happens, it’s a lot more likely to make it to the next annual before it catastrophically fails. A wood spar with a compression fracture probably won’t make it through the next flight.

Andreas IOM

Surely one would look at whether the bird has hit the propeller before recommending an engine teardown?

Even if there has been propeller contact, what are the guidelines from the manufacturers? I had some “contact” about 10 years ago and one engine shop told me it is ok if there is not even any paint damage on the prop.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Just reading that in Spain, since 2000,12 bird strikes involving light aircraft have been recorded, claiming 15 lives.

An exhaustive study of the flight patterns of 92 griffon vultures, 15 black vultures and 103 white storks has concluded that their main activity is between 10:00-16:00 from March-September. Contrary to popular belief, usually their max altitude is 4.000 ft AGL.

Last Edited by aart at 11 May 14:03
Private field, Mallorca, Spain





Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

Now that’s a bird strike😳

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

What a mess…
It’s a large bird!

EGTR

Well done to the pilot who landed safely after that distraction!

EIWT Weston, Ireland

I had two minor bird strikes – one with small sparrow hawk and metal propeller, no damage at all, and one with seagull which left a scratch on the back side of composite propeller which was measured and concluded to be shallow enough not to require any action except paint job.

LDZA LDVA, Croatia
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