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Bird strike accidents and discussion (merged)

Maoraigh wrote:

The Delamontes wing is very strong.
I hit a fence with a Jodel DR1050, aborting take-off, at less than flying speed, but quite fast. The wingspar wasn’t reached. Farm livestock fence.
Flew back a few days later, after engineer had repaired damage.

That is good to know. Anyway, I still wonder what the effect of a crow at 60kt would be. I just have a hard time imagining how the wooden leading edge reacts to impact (as well as the fabric surface). Metal surfaces are flexible and despite the material being thin and relatively weak it can bend a lot before it breaks, but that is of course not the case for wood. Fabric is flexible but I assume a bird at a certain angle can make a big hole easily.

LFST, France

According to one of my instructor, crows are quite clever and long living creatures. He usually says that a lot of them has seen the very beggining of aviation so they very well know all about airplane and the collision with them is highly unlikely :-) I’m not a bird specialist though … but it does seem like bird strike usually are with other types of birds.

ENVA, Norway

Aircraft speed is a big factor. Piston GA speeds the birds brains can handle, and the inevitably disastrous collision they usually can avoid. Even a dense flock can let an aircraft through. Birds do make mistakes, but are very abstemious regarding alcohol and drugs, so there is less risk of this than with fellow motorists.
A few birds will attack aircraft. Great skuas do so, but avoid hitting the aircraft. Their collision course interception skills impress me, but the propwash is a surprise, as is the lack of feathers to grab on the Jodel.
Higher speed aircraft are another matter. The bird has no time to take avoiding action.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

I think low flying is a big factor too. Get to a decent height ASAP.

Sometimes you get known “focus” points. There is a lot of info here for example. (That fly-in was never done, BTW – cancelled due to wx – but multiple fatal crashes caused by large birds is a big topic in Spain).

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

They go out of their nests with low flying…

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Yes in general people don’t seem to bother too much about them, and my instructor usually says “don’t worry they will get out of the way”.
A fellow Aeroclub member though told me he once hit one with a wheel. That is possibly the best point of impact but it does show that a strike is not extremely unlikely.
Still wondering about what would happen to the wood and fabric wing. I guess it’s better to stop thinking about it
Changing bird species now, I am in Alsace which of course is the land of the stork. Anyone has experience with them and their behavior? They seem to mostly fly at a few hundred meters from the ground in slow circles and I have never seen one while flying, even though when I’m on the ground I see them all the time. According to wikipedia they are able to get to 16k+ feet when migrating.

Last Edited by Seba at 03 Aug 11:24
LFST, France

Bird strikes do make a mess. In the below the whole underside of the plane was covered with blood and guts. Was during rotation at Schiphol.

EGTK Oxford

@JasonC yep saw that already. I don’t have a huge ass jet though

LFST, France

For the french speakers, I found the two documents below to be somehow interesting (they are quite old but they can still give some useful insight).
https://www.stac.aviation-civile.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/ana_peril_2010-2013.pdf
http://www.stac.aviation-civile.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/met_eval_risq_animal.pdf

For those who don’t speak french I would anyway suggest to have a look at them, there are some useful graphs and tables that are quite self explanatory.

Local copies of above

ana_peril_2010_2013_pdf
met_eval_risq_animal_pdf

LFST, France

This came in one of Savvy USA emails. Interesting that a shop would recommend a shock load inspection when there is no evidence that the bird touched the propeller.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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