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Bird strike accidents and discussion (merged)

Aart,

no idea why they fly so high but they do. Certainly the one which hit our plane did. And in Wikipedia, they are mentioned as high flying birds too.

First time I heard of those birds flying that high was in the 1980ties in a lecture by a German airline pilot/author by the name of Braunburg. He mentioned them in a book, and being quite an ornithologist himself, said a few words about them. He mentioned that they did encounter these birds at quite high altitudes both over Spain and also in Asia.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

I’ve certainly had my fair share of ‘Strange Encounters of the Avian Kind’ in southern Spain. In fact, I’m surprised there aren’t many, many more bird strikes down there. Andalusia sits smack in the middle of one of the two main migratory routes from/to Europe and Africa and vultures, eagles, gulls, loads of smaller bird, etc, etc, are literally everywhere. I recall seeing what I believe to be vultures (I didn’t fly close to investigate….) in the 7-9k ft AGL region and loads of – sometimes huge! – seagulls along the coast. At least the gulls normally dive away!

I have seen them in Trinidad up to FL150, with more some way above. Between Piarco airport and going over the lowlands to the northern point they thermal up to significant heights – these are true vultures, but remarkably good pilots, albeit sadly they clearly get it wrong sometimes. They are beautiful birds.

I’ve read somewhere there are 8’000 reported bird strikes per year! I had 2-3 close calls and one actual strike myself (low and slow, hit a gull with lower wing, no damage).
Maybe it would be a good idea to include damage resistant front canopies in future GA designs.
Shattered plexiglas planted in one’s face is not exactly a good starting point for saving the show…

LSGG, LFEY, Switzerland

Brings back to mind a story when I visited the structural test lab of a major aerospace manufacturer in Italy a long time ago. They were testing the resistance of a windshield by way of a cannon firing a…. half frozen chicken into it. Anyone who claims that Italians are inefficient is mistaken because the remains veered off in the general direction of the canteen

Last Edited by aart at 22 Jan 08:45
Private field, Mallorca, Spain

Half frozen is already better than frozen. Those results are “Interesting” but hardly useful.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

aart wrote:

Anyone who claims that Italians are inefficient is mistaken because the remains veered off in the general direction of the canteen

Reminds me of that funny (possibly urban legend) story about a transmission heard on ATC: “Airliner: and tower, there’s some kind of dead animal on the runway”… “Tower: Airline 123, did you copy that message?” “Airline 123: Yes, we copied, and we’ve already informed our catering department!”

Andreas IOM

Another SEP brought down by birds

A Cessna 172 obviously crashed after a collision with vultures in Spain, 3 fatalities: ASN accident report

Wasn’t there a thread a few weeks ago about a Spanish TB20 that suffered the same fate?

These birds in Spain must be really massive, I don’t remember a fatal birdstrike in other parts of Europe in recent years…

LOAN Wiener Neustadt Ost, Austria

That’s horrible – must have been a massive bird (or a weak wing?).

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Here in the Pyrenees, we watch the Vautour Fauve (Griffon Vulture) soaring in flocks – sometimes 20 or more. They have a wingspan of 2.5m and an empty weight of more 8 kilos. Massive birds indeed, said to be second only in size to the Andean Condor. They do tend to soar in customary locations though, up the Pyrenean valleys.

NeilC
EGPT, LMML
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