Near miss with Deer

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JohnWF

Pre-takeoff checklist
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John at Salida
Before our airport was fenced to keep out wildlife there were often deer on the runway. They were so accustomed to planes that they would just stand there and watch.

Now we have full airport fencing. But, today on cutting power just a few feet above the runway a deer dashed past my forward vision. I must have missed it by merely a few feet.

Lesson learned: scan both ways left and right of the runway into the grassy areas to be sure there are no deer even NEAR the runway.
 
Yikes, glad you missed it.

Deer can hide and blast into really stupid spaces. And can cause a huge amount of damage.
 
Hard to see them at night. Was landing around midnight after my loooooong instrument XC. Just after the nose settled down, two of them dashed in front of us. I still don't know how we didn't end up with ground venison all over the plane.
 
The problem with the fences is the stupid deer don't know which side of the fence they're supposed to be on. I regularly flew out of a military airfield with all kinds of fences and it was still standard procedure to make low "deer passes" at night before landing.
 
Here was my near miss. Skip to 1:22 to see the deer break cover on the left side of the windshield and dash across the runway. Hard to tell, but I did have to get on the brakes a bit to ensure a miss. Later that day I had a repeat performance with a coyote. It was like the Wild Kingdom in Georgia that day.

 
I guess mine qualifies as a near miss then, in the mid nineties I took out a deer with a Warrior. A friend and I were returning from a flight about an hour after sunset when a deer ran across the runway in front of us during rollout. We both yelled "deer" as it passed about 50 feet ahead of us. Neither or us saw the second one, suddenly there was an impact noise and the plane swerved right, my immediate thought was something had struck the right stabilator. After straightening out, we continued to the lighted ramp, shut down the engine and exited. Found no damage to the stabilator, but there were a couple of hoof sized dents in the bottom right wing skin, the right wheel pant mounting bracket was bent and rubbing the brake disc and there was a large flat shallow dent in the fuselage skin behind the boarding step. Apparently the second deer went under the right wing, glanced off the right main gear, hit the boarding step and flipped up against the fuselage side. One of the field mechanics drove out to the runway and recovered the carcass of an antlerless buck. Don't believe any of the dents on the rental Warrior were ever repaired, it flew many more years until ending up as a ramp derelict. I need to woak out and look at it sometime and see if the dents are still there.
 
We have a fence and even that you'll get deer, our local gobermnet doesn't do jack to remove them, nor does it do anything to get hunters to take them out, but hey let's all worry about RC airplanes :rolleyes2:

All of my "ohh chit!" moments have mostly been wildlife related, night time deer almost seem to absorb light hard to spot them till your basically on them.
 
The state of NC will authorize you to get a permit to take nuisance deer on your own property at any time. I think I can get a permit to hunt on the runway.
 
I knew an ag pilot who had a mid-air with a deer once and it wasn't associated with take-off or landing.
 
So how do deer get through the fence? I have seen this a bunch, and the fences always seemed pretty solid.
 
SkyHog said:
So how do deer get through the fence? I have seen this a bunch, and the fences always seemed pretty solid.
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They don't. They go over. They are the NBA players of the animal kingdom.
 
Deer can really jump fences quite well or even fit through a very small hole in the fence.

Sneaky little buggers, they are.
 
A few weeks after my multi check ride another student and his instructor were preparing for takeoff right at sunset. They decided to taxi the length of the runway run off any critters. Well, they start their takeoff roll and just prior to rotation a deer runs onto the runway from the left. It hits the nose and pushes it into the right engine. They were able to stop with no injuries but I can't say the same for the deer. What a mess... The plane was down for two months but it took a lot longer for the smell to go away...:yikes:

I'm now based a a class D field that's fenced and we still have a problem. The worst time is doing hunting session. I think they are smart enough to know there are no hunters there...:yikes: The airport does have organized hunts from time to time when that get out of control...:yes:

Be careful out there...:yes:
 
My most dangerous experience in an airplane was due to 3 deer. Was doing night landings at around 10 pm, full power in and about to lift off just as I pull back I see 3 deer running across the runway. If any of them had been more than spikes I woulda had flat tires.

Airport is fenced and I believe they even have someone who will come out and hunt them from time to time.
 
denverpilot said:
Seems like a clever way to say the pilot hit the deer while dusting a field. Flying, not taking off or landing. But just flying really really low. Deer! Whack.
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Yup, that is what happened.

He said he sprayed a field and came to a telephone line. He pulled up, went over the telephone line and pushed back down to spray the field on the other side. He said he saw something brown out of the corner of his eye. Next thing he knew the plane spun right, nose went into the ground, and started cartwheeling. He came to rest upside down. He heard the prop still spinning, smelled fuel and it caught fire. He reached up to open the canopy but his arm didn't work - turned out to be broken and he didn't know it. He spent a couple months in the hospital. That day was his last day flying. He was an A&P rebuilding ag planes when I knew him.
He said when deer get startled they jump. Apparently one ran towards him and jumped into his right wing.
 
AKBill said:
Moose can be really suicidal as well........
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Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretti nasti...

I was doing solo landing practice on 29L at BJC back when I was a student (the smaller parallel runway was usually dedicated to student use and often you were the only one in the pattern over there). I noticed a large animal between the runways. Looked like an Elk. The tower said they'd have someone take care of it. Soon there was a couple of guys in a pick up truck trying to wrangle it off the airport property. Don't know if they succeeded or not.
 
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denverpilot said:
Seems like a clever way to say the pilot hit the deer while dusting a field. Flying, not taking off or landing. But just flying really really low. Deer! Whack.
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Or the aircraft scared the crap out of it and the deer jumped in to the airplane.

I was landing in Burlington, IA and had to steer to avoid a couple of coyotes on the runway. That was fun. At least I saw them ahead of time and was able to land left of centerline to avoid them.
 
mkosmo said:
Or the aircraft scared the crap out of it and the deer jumped in to the airplane.

I was landing in Burlington, IA and had to steer to avoid a couple of coyotes on the runway. That was fun. At least I saw them ahead of time and was able to land left of centerline to avoid them.
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Just missed one on runway 5 at KGIF, 2 weeks ago :hairraise:

Cheers
 
lbfd101 said:
Neither or us saw the second one
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That's the deal with deer. They are herd animals and safety for them is being in the middle of the herd. If one gets spooked and jumps, leaves at a run, all the others there are going to follow.

If you see one, expect there to be more nearby. Doing equally stupid things. :mad2:

-Skip
 
th



I ain't cleaning that up....
 
Dodged deer one night at Rancho Murieta (RIU) outside of Sacramento. They crossed in front of me on the taxiway headed for the runway. Oh great, now where are they. I did not meet them on a dark runway.

Loring AFB, Maine. Standard practice for the SOF to do a runway sweep with lots of lights and noise as the Buffs where coming back from their night flights. The Moose is Loose.

Touch n Go in the Bone at Rapid City. Standard is to keep the nose gear off the ground on a touch n go. Power up and on the go, saw a deer in the lights. Left the gear down on the go and called the SOF for a runway sweep. Sure enough a dead deer on centerline. We must have clipped it with the mains.

Had to hold while they cleared the FOD and then a full stop to check the plane. No damage found, suspect the main tire rubber took the hit.
 
flyingron said:
The state of NC will authorize you to get a permit to take nuisance deer on your own property at any time. I think I can get a permit to hunt on the runway.
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Used to line up abreast and walk the grass beside the runway at Mather AFB, CA with pistols. Only way to keep the rabbit population down. T-37s hated rabbit.
 
BillTIZ said:
Used to line up abreast and walk the grass beside the runway at Mather AFB, CA with pistols. Only way to keep the rabbit population down. T-37s hated rabbit.
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That makes me wonder how Edwards handles that.

I've been there in Spring and not been able to step without kicking a desert cottontail out of the way. At least they are very small rabbits, but I wouldn't imagine they are much fun as FOD. Lots of turbojets around there.

That field is enormous. I can't imagine it being swept like that.
 
A bit OT but BNSF Railroad hit a herd of Elk in Montana and killed 24 of them in one swath. They were so badly mangled there wasn't enough left to make Elkburger of. Imagine cleaning up that mess. :yikes:
 
A few years ago, a friend of mine took out a deer with a 172 in his landing flare - the plane lurched hard, and his go-around was successful.

The deer took out his left main. He flew around for a few hours to burn remaining fuel, went to a large airport with foam and emergency personnel, then proceeded to set the plane down veeeeery gently on his right main and nose wheel. He held it off as long as he could until the plane settled on two wheels and left side of the fuselage. Apparently the only damage done besides the gear was the nav light on the left wing.
 
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