Hit my first (and hopefully last) bird

Chrisgoesflying

Chrisgoesflying

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Chrisgoesflying
I went on a short, one hour flight today. Since it was a short flight, I didn't want to go all the way up to my usual cruising altitude of 6,000 - 10,000 ft and instead stayed at 3,500 ft. It was a super uneventful flight with flight following. Center pointed out a plane at my 11 o'clock and I watched them do some stalls and spins and then nothing, just radio chatter and smooth air until all of a sudden, a large looking bird appears right in front of us. I go left and up and I hear a noise. We hit the bird. I didn't know where the bird impacted. I mean, I knew it wasn't the windshield or any of the windows obviously but other than that, I knew we hit, but I didn't know where. Plane handled just fine, gauges were all indicating fine so I continued flight since we were about 15 minutes from the destination anyways.

After landing, I immediately went around the plane looking for damage. Fortunately, no damage at all. The bird hit the lower side of the leading edge of the wing, about a foot from the wing root. Some blood and feathers but the plane is fine, not even a scratch on it. I think I didn't hit it straight on. Since I went left and into a climb I most likely just kind of scraped it. Still made a bit of a mess but at least no damage. I can wipe off the blood and feathers without a mechanic signing my logbook lol.
 
Be careful out there. It's geese migration time, and those big birds can bust a lot of stuff.
 
Dan Thomas said:
Be careful out there. It's geese migration time, and those big birds can bust a lot of stuff.
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I'm more worried about the snowbirds :biggrin:
 
Your experience supports the recent discussion of birds dive, you climb, and the bird hits something not so important. Glad it worked out so well for you.

I've passed very close to balloons on two occasions. Saw them last minute. Scarred the bejesus out of me.
 
Glad that it wasn't worse.
As a student, lacking immediately-apparent negative effects (like in your situation) is this something that I should think about declaring an emergency over if I'm solo? I know that I've seen birds pretty close before. Just not sure how common bird strikes are.
 
I was taught very early on to always climb when I see a bird on collision course as they usually dive when they see danger. If you should declare an emergency really depends on where the bird hits and what the plane does after the hit. Everything felt and looked normal after the hit so no need to declare. Had something seemed off, I certainly would have landed at the first opportunity so it really depends I guess, solo student or licensed doesn't really matter. How common this is, it is the first time it happened to me in 444 hours of flying. Prior to this, I saw birds very close maybe 2-3 times but didn't hit them. Not sure if that's considered common or rare.
 
I hit a pigeon when on short final a couple of weeks ago. I saw 5 or so of the flockers launching from the side of the runway and across my path. I added power to overfly them and one decided to try and outclimb me, but we only tied. At last glance, the dead bird was sitting on top of the "3" of the 35 on the runway...

Minor ding on the LE and a paint crack. I'm trying to decide whether to fix it or just spend more money and time and add extended range fuel to the -10. That option removes two bays from the LE on each wing. One of the bays is the dinged one... The -10 "only" holds 60 gallons, which makes it a comfortable 3.5 hour airplane. I'd love 10 more gallons and the extended range tanks add a little over 20 gallons.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
I was taught very early on to always climb when I see a bird on collision course as they usually dive when they see danger.
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I think that's something I learned here not long after joining. Glad it worked out for you. Too bad for the bird, though. Doesn't sounds like it was much longer for this world afterward.
Mahneuvers said:
I've passed very close to balloons on two occasions. Saw them last minute. Scarred the bejesus out of me.
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I passed pretty close to a glider just the other day. It was maybe half mile to my left and 500ft below. Got a good startle as I was logging an airborne VOR check at the time. Checked the ADS-B TIS and it was not there.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
How common this is, it is the first time it happened to me in 444 hours of flying
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I'm at around 720, and had my first real blood & feathers birdstrike a couple weeks ago. Mine was a small songbird on about a 1 mile final and I didn't hear it hit, just found the evidence later. On my second training flight the CFI saw one go through the fan on takeoff. I've gotten scary close to a couple hawks, once I had to take evasive action, and like your experience, I climbed and it dove. Every close call with a bigger bird has been in that 2-3000' range.
 
Jim K said:
Every close call with a bigger bird has been in that 2-3000' range.
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That's exactly why I usually like to cruise above 5,000 ft. and hold off descending until I absolutely have to, cloud ceiling permitting obviously. Today was just such a short flight, I didn't think it's worth it climbing an extra 2,000 ft. so I stayed at 3,500. Plus, there was a scattered layer of clouds at 4,500 ft. and the destination airport did not have any automated weather or tower service, hence I didn't want to risk that scattered layer becoming a broken or overcast layer by the time we arrive, trapping us above it.
 
Luckily I have never hit a big bird that caused damage, but I have hit at least 4-5. I got one on go pro camera going thru my propeller.
When flying low in the river valley and over farm fields it is bound to happen.
We also have these road runner type birds that hang out on our asphalt runway.
I did come face to face with bald eagle couple years ago as I was turning base to a river bottoms airport. He dodged me pretty good thankfully.
There is a eagle in one of those trees, it is speck. I see the same pair, they never move from their perch, although they watch me go by.
IMG_2798.JPG

That eagle is in this picture also, right at the top on one tree. Probably hunting fish.
IMG_2800.JPG
 
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Spooky. Glad you and the plane are OK! Good to know that climb doesn't always work, too. So far, I've been lucky. No birds, just bugs.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
I was taught very early on to always climb when I see a bird on collision course as they usually dive when they see danger. If you should declare an emergency really depends on where the bird hits and what the plane does after the hit. Everything felt and looked normal after the hit so no need to declare. Had something seemed off, I certainly would have landed at the first opportunity so it really depends I guess, solo student or licensed doesn't really matter. How common this is, it is the first time it happened to me in 444 hours of flying. Prior to this, I saw birds very close maybe 2-3 times but didn't hit them. Not sure if that's considered common or rare.
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Not to mention the fact that you likely have better climb performance than most birds will.
 
I've had one strike. A small bird when I was landing at a class C airport. Tower sent out a person to sample the remains to send for identification. They took care of reporting the strike to the Wildlife Strike Database. It is located here: https://wildlife.faa.gov/home
 
asicer said:
I passed pretty close to a glider just the other day. It was maybe half mile to my left and 500ft below. Got a good startle as I was logging an airborne VOR check at the time. Checked the ADS-B TIS and it was not there.
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Gliders won’t appear on ADS-B because they don’t (rarely) have Transponders.
Primary radar doesn’t see them, or otherwise filters-out because of their movement patterns (circling).

As many flaws as there are in “see and avoid” , when I started flying Gliders I realize just how little attention most airplane pilots spend on their visual scanning. I’ve spotted airplanes ~2 miles out when I was circling a thermal, tried to make a call on CTAF and approach to get their attention but no answer, then see the airplane stay on a straight-line path and nearby me while I was circling in the thermal, plane pilot never saw me???

In the glider I’ve got 15-meter (50ft) wingspan and only traveling ~70 Kts, should be able to see that with eyes.
 
I hit a bird on my first ever flight with pax as a 60? Hr PPL. It was a night tour of Chicago so I never saw it. When it hit it sounded like a sharp crack. My first reaction was that passenger seat slipped. We double checked seat positions and continued on the tour. I only figured it out after bringing the plane back and cleaning it up for the night.

ChopAndDrop said:
realize just how little attention most airplane pilots spend on their visual scanning
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I learned this flying a non electric J3 cub. I probably have 4 NMACs in 40 hrs J3 time. A Lance/Saratoga in the pattern entry, Aerostar 4nm final and 1000 ft below glide path, RV doing acro?, and interestingly enough, another J3!
 
I have hit several in 10,000 hours. Had 2 go through jet engines with no damage. The only one that I did not know that I had hit was in a KA200 at night. it caved in the leading edge of the right wing. Found the damage after we landed, it was night.
 
if it only hit the leading edge you probably just flipped the bird
 
Several birds and kites in helicopters but never in a plane. My last one.IMG_0637.jpeg
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
Could something like this be repaired or would this require a whole new wing?
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Surprisingly, Mooney had the center wing skin outboard of the fuel tank in stock. It was the full top & bottom wrap around, one piece skin. Shipping cost was about the same as the skin cost. Mooney support was very helpful with info to crib the airplane. Shop was able to use the damaged skin to mark the couple hundred rivet holes. Couple of months and a few K later it was good as new.
Of course after the repair I had to get an updated paint job.
 
I hit a bird prior to my first solo (decades ago) and haven't hit one since. Local bird and he zigged when he should have zagged. Got hit with the prop. We landed, found no damage to the airplane and I went off to solo. That airplane is flying to this day.
 
I hit a seagull once with a wing flap about 25 years ago...I saw it on approach but couldn't avoid it. Bent the wing flap pretty good too.

Then last week, I was flying IFR at night (something I rarely do anyway), about 10 seconds after my wheels left the tarmac, I heard "thump thump thump thump" in rapid succession...scared the bejeezus out of me, thinking I was having an engine misfire. I took my headset off, listened, but didn't hear another thump, so I convinced myself I imagined it. Flew an hour home. After landing, I'm noticing blood and feathers on 4 spots on the wing and horizontal stab...no damage though, so I'm not sure what kind of small bird flies in a flock at night in the rain but...
 
Country Flier said:
I hit a seagull once with a wing flap about 25 years ago...I saw it on approach but couldn't avoid it. Bent the wing flap pretty good too.

Then last week, I was flying IFR at night (something I rarely do anyway), about 10 seconds after my wheels left the tarmac, I heard "thump thump thump thump" in rapid succession...scared the bejeezus out of me, thinking I was having an engine misfire. I took my headset off, listened, but didn't hear another thump, so I convinced myself I imagined it. Flew an hour home. After landing, I'm noticing blood and feathers on 4 spots on the wing and horizontal stab...no damage though, so I'm not sure what kind of small bird flies in a flock at night in the rain but...
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You didn't find parts of the nest and a few tree leaves did you? ;)
 
SoonerAviator said:
You didn't find parts of the nest and a few tree leaves did you? ;)
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I was by myself, and my plane climbs like a rocket when I'm light/solo, so I was probably already 300 agl, so maybe a tall tree? LOL
 
I can remember a few times on different flights hearing a thump during training with my CFI/CFII. Never saw it. I think once we found some hints of the collision but nothing egregious, and the other time(s) no sign of it....but we surmised that it must have been birds.

And I'm reminded of the time I was at the airport and my instructor returned with a different student. They deplaned telling a story of hitting a Turkey Buzzard while doing touch and goes at a neighboring airport. Hit it with the prop and they had to full stop and clean the windshield so that they could see. Said it was one of the most disgusting smelling messes ever!
 
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