Bird Strike

[FredH]

A week or so ago , someone posted pictures of a turkey stuck in the windshield of a Coke cola truck . Here is my story .

06:00 and cruising north on I-5 near Willows , CA. , about halfway between Sacramento and Redding Saturday morning . Foggy , maybe 1/8 mile visibility ,

And obviously dark , when just to left of windshield center post , seen something about 3 feet above the hood headed towards passenger side . Split second later it

Crashed into passenger windshield , 6" from top and about 12" from far right side . Windshield shattered !!! :shocked::shocked:

Object : A Duck or another type dark feathered bird .

Result : 1 dead bird and pictures below show windshield .


Pushed the glass in about 2" at point of impact . In Aeronautical terms : The Bird was not cleared for instrument approach , Thus it's glide path on final approach was to low and should of aborted .

If bird had been in the Navy , Landing Officer would of been giving a red light and waved it's dumb rear end off .

And to top it off , Had a Dentist appointment once I got home and Dentist asked if I kept the Duck ?? Most likely would of been arrested as if I had stopped , Law enforcement would of received calls of some nut case standing on the side of the freeway kicking a dead bird all over the place .


Fred H.

 

[creekbend]

Sorry about the windshield. That would most definitely get someone's attention.

 

[FredH]

Sphincter is still pretty small and I know there was a wet spot in my underwear when I stopped 30 minutes later to get fuel .:ashamed:

Fred H.

 

[Don87]

May have been an owl considering it was still dark outside. I've had several hit my truck in 11 years of trucking, but no broken winshield yet(touches wood).

I've had a lot of hawks hit my truck lately also.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I am a pilot and have had my fair share of run it with birds but most have been small, beer can size or so. Going at speeds up to 525 mph in level cruise flight though things happen quick.

Probably my three scariest run ins have been taking a bunch through the right #2 engine on takeoff out of Bradford, PA at my current job. No damage and motor keep running but my heart was racing waiting for it to puke. I also took 2 in the captains windshield at night in the weather going into Waterloo, IA back in the late 90's when I was flying for FedEx. Another time was at my current job on takeoff out of my home airport here in Muncie IN. Had a flock of maybe 50 larger birds fly right up infront of me on takeoff. I aborted and just got it stopped on the remaining runway. Later that day just up the road from us a Falcon 20 dumped in the field about 1/2 mile of the departure end of the runway after ingesting multiple birds in both motors.

It can be scary. Glad you are ok. The truck can be fixed.

Chris

 

[Gary Fowler]

Birds on a runway are not good. I have hit my share with cars, but airplanes dont digest them well at all. A friend from Venezuela hit a buzzard with his Twin engined airplane while flying above 10K feet. I came thru the windshield, knocked him out, then when he came to, started vomitting from all the smell and buzzard guts in his face and mouth. Luckily his wife was with him and was able to hit autopilot as she knew nothing about flying. He managed to take control and get to the Caracas airport for repairs to airplane and himself.

 

[V1Rotate]

I am a pilot and have had my fair share of run it with birds but most have been small, beer can size or so. Going at speeds up to 525 mph in level cruise flight though things happen quick.

Probably my three scariest run ins have been taking a bunch through the right #2 engine on takeoff out of Bradford, PA at my current job. No damage and motor keep running but my heart was racing waiting for it to puke. I also took 2 in the captains windshield at night in the weather going into Waterloo, IA back in the late 90's when I was flying for FedEx. Another time was at my current job on takeoff out of my home airport here in Muncie IN. Had a flock of maybe 50 larger birds fly right up infront of me on takeoff. I aborted and just got it stopped on the remaining runway. Later that day just up the road from us a Falcon 20 dumped in the field about 1/2 mile of the departure end of the runway after ingesting multiple birds in both motors.

It can be scary. Glad you are ok. The truck can be fixed.

Chris

Bird strikes worry me also. So far I've only hit a few, and a couple of those were at night. A friend of mine hit hit 11 canada geese while landing in a Cessna Citation. While on the approach the crew didn't see them all sitting on the runway, on very short final all the geese got spooked and took off just as the plane was touching down. Trashed the airplane but nobody hurt.

 

[ray66v]

Flying piston singles, birds are not what I am most concerned about.

It's touching down and night, and right when you get too slow to get back off the ground quickly, out of nowhere, appears a deer, coyote, or an occasional what the {expletive deleted} is that, (sasquatch?), standing right in front of you.

I keep wishing they put had thought to put air horns on these airplanes. :thumbsup: :laughing:

 

[V1Rotate]

One time while landing at night I hit a skunk that was on the runway, what a horrible smell.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Yea, a deer would do tons of damage. A co worker of mine hit a coyotte in a MU2 on landing and it took off the right main gear. MU2 is one of the toughest built airplanes out there, gear wise.

He also had some deer run out infront of him in a MU2 and he went around hitting 2 or 3 of them. He came back around to land and they were laying in the runway dead. Did virtually no damage to the airplane, just some small dents on the belly.

Chris