bird strike

[Kid]

Just wondering how many members have had a bird strike in an helicopter or gyrocopter and what was their experience

Would/could it bring your ship down ??

[StanFoster]

Kid- I havent hit one yet, but have a beautiful red tailed hawk that perches along my chopper channel frequently. It doesnt seem to matter how slow or fast I take off through the channel....he waits till I am 200 feet away then lifts off. My takeoffs now leave around 10 feet of ground clearance for my skids to allow for galloping deer, and the red tailed hawk usually stays up around 30-40 feet.

I almost fed him through the rotor twice.....I now fly through the channel much slower giving him time to clear out. I would rather hit him with my main rotor than having him going through my tail rotor.

Stan

[bryancobb]

My stick-buddy, Instructor, an I (at Ft. Rucker) were tooling along, stick buddy was flying. It was my turn in the back of the Huey.

Tim hit a huge vulture or condor. It struck in the chin bubble and busted it and came in and hit the pedals and splattered all over his feet. It stank soooo bad! Lt. Berto Bott (Swiss Airline Pilot) was our CFI. He took the controls and we made a Precautionary Landing. Flatiron picked us up to go to the hospital and pee in a cup, and that was it. All over.

[z_smurf]

I know a pilot who emailed about when he got a pigeon in the rotor at his MTO-Sport.

Bird was separated onto two pieces, no visible damage could be observed at the rotor blades.

[Jacko]

Preflight between short hops reveals bird entrails on external 1/3 of rotorblade. Did not see it or feel it.
Jacko

[Brent Drake]

I know a guy that came in for a landing just after dark. Said he had just touched down and heard a weird thump like hitting a watermelon. Then the stick started to shake a little more than normal. When he got it shut down at the hanger. The insides of an animal or something was hanging from the end of the blade. He cleaned it off left for the night.
He said the next day he was getting fuel for the afternoon and the gas attendant said that a coyote must have killed a bird. Because there is large bird pieces all over the taxi way. He told him he had hit something last night at dark. He said there were bird everywhere. The feathers were brown like a hawk or owl. It was to far gone to tell.

I have talked to a few guys that told me that strobes will make birds disorientated after dark. That probably caused the bird to fly into the blades.

Blades were not hurt or even scratched. They could have still flown with the bird pieces hanging from the blade. I would not be concerned about a bird strike at all.

[Gyro_Kai]

With gyros we are probably more threatened by bird strike from behind, aren't we?

Kai.

[bryancobb]

Originally Posted by Gyro_Kai

With gyros we are probably more threatened by bird strike from behind, aren't we?

Kai.

Now that would be an interesting NTSB report! "Contributing factor...several geese rear-ended the slow flying aircraft creating structural damage!" LOL

[Resasi]

Have had a reasonable number of crows, and hawks at our airfield in the summer. While doing exercises I have a number of times come quite close to these.

I am not overly concerned about the open frame gyro being hit, but a large bird like that in the face at 55-65kts could be something to think about. Even with a visor it would give one quiet a bang.

In bush charter had a friend hit a vulture in a C180 it smashed through the windshield knocked him silly and blinded him temporarily, luckily the guy in the right seat was another pilot and they made it down OK, but could have ended badly.

[StanFoster]

There is a small lake next to my woods that i fly out of, many here have seen in my videos. Lots of Canadian geese are around. I slow up around my woods as I wouldnt want to impact one of them going 110 mph! Stan

[Gyro_Kai]

Someone told me, that crows are too clever, but be careful about geese and birds of prey. The first don't care, the latter may want to negotiate their territory with you.

Kai

[GyroCFI]

I came very close to hitting a deer at the end of a waterway that we were practicing emergency procedures at. We leveled off after the aborted landing and noticed several deer at the end of the waterway... then all of a sudden this big buck comes charging at us and leaps up in the air to try to hit us... He missed us only by a few feet.. I still remember the look of "I'm protecting my herd" in his eyes and his nostrils flairing...

i've seen birds dive away from us but never got close enough to consider it a serious risk.

[Fly Army]

We hit a big stinky turkey vulture while in training at Mother Rucker. Busted through the co-pilot windshield and hit my IP in the chest and broke three of his ribs. If we had been in a small light gyro I think it would have been a lot worse maybe even fatal.

Later on while flying an OH-6 on night vision goggles I hit a bat one night. Pretty scary because I didn't see him until the last second and I think it was the same experience for him as well. All of sudden I see his little pushed up nose and screeching face a few feet in front of me and then BAM - blood streak arcing up over the windshield. Found what was left of him during post-flight all crashed up into the push-pull tubes at the base of the mast.

[James]

I was tooling along about 55 MPH at 2000 ft, a big black bug hit me right in the center of my forhead, saw him coming right before he hit. Pert near knocked me out, left a big red spot on my head, but I am sure he got the worst of it because I have a hard head! Never seen a bug that big or that high.

James Lee - TN

[bryancobb]

Originally Posted by James

I was tooling along about 55 MPH at 2000 ft, a big black bug hit me right in the center of my forhead, saw him coming right before he hit. Pert near knocked me out, left a big red spot on my head, but I am sure he got the worst of it because I have a hard head! Never seen a bug that big or that high.

James Lee - TN

A bug at 200ft??? ATC should have called him on that! B-UG's are forbiden above 50' AGL.