Bird strike?

[WaspAir]

While cruising in my Bell 47, I felt an inflight "thump", followed by noticeable cabin hop, so I returned to base immediately. The event was at 65 knots and 700 feet agl. Inspection revealed the damage shown below. The blade leading edge is stainless, I think, and much tougher than a typical bird (or so I would expect anyway). The spanwise position is about halfway to the tip (rotational velocity there is about 200 knots)

Anybody ever seen damage like this?

 

[DavePA11]

Looks expensive. Are you sure it was from a bird?

 

[Kevin_Richey]

Possibly a drone up too high?

 

[WaspAir]

Nope, definitely not sure. I expected to see blood and other traces but did not. Drone? Bullet? I really don't know. I didn't see anything before feeling the thump.

I was over empty rural landscape at the time.

And yes, I fear outrageous cost. Those main rotor blades are hard to find and pricey beyond belief if not repairable.

 

[Smack]

Yeah, generally some organic debris left after a bird strike. That is suspicious to me, too.

 

[13brv3]

Sure looks like it was something harder than a bird. It would probably be worth filing a report with the local law enforcement, and maybe even some branch of the FAA. If you've got hull insurance, that might be helpful or even necessary. Either way, glad the blades got you home safely.

Rusty

 

[Sv.grainne]

Wow, hate to see the bird, if it could be found!

 

[Brian Jackson]

Have you checked the rotorhead and blade straps for any missing nuts/hardware? At half the blade tip speed (1/2 span) I can't imagine a bird doing damage that looks like this.

 

[WaspAir]

Everything else is complete, undamaged, and intact, including the tail rotor. I think it looks more like battle damage than mother nature, but I don't know how to figure it out.

 

[okikuma]

J.R.,

First, a big thank you to the Almighty that you and those below you during the flight are safe.

The damage sure looks from something man made. By chance were you flying over any new agricultural developments that resemble the following?

Wayne

 

[WaspAir]

No, it was very sparsely settled open Colorado range. No buildings, scattered trees, rocks, maybe a few cattle per square mile. No sign of people or ag operations below.

[Colorado was one of the first states to legalize growing marijuana so helicopter farm overflights are not so provocative these days. ]

 

[j bird]

Is it possible for a bullet fired miles away, not at you, having spent its energy on its way back to earth, contacted the blade? meteorite?

 

[Chris Burgess]

That's no B-I-R-D strike. I chopped a lot of bamboo in my times with a Huey and they have stainless leading edges as well. It may crease the skins but not hurt the LE. Had some M-60 shell casings hit the tail rotor and they never left a "sharp" gouge like yours, just an ugly dent. Missing hardware from anything? Even a forgotten wrench that may have flown out?

In some of my reserve days they told us to never do our NOE (nap of the earth) training over the local forest during hunting season. Those guys like to shoot at the noisy Huey that scares away their prey. Blaze orange suits in them trees, go someplace else.!!!!

 

[Abid]

That was not a bird. We have hit a bird on a Cessna 162 SkyCatcher at about 95 knots on the wing leading edge. You would have had some organic material left there. There does not seem to be any. May be some hard object. A bullet or something

 

[Resasi]

Bullet.

 

[WaspAir]

I am not much comforted by the idea of strangers shooting at me (and especially hitting that close).

 

[DavePA11]

Yeah - looks like a bullet to me too.

 

[13brv3]

I've spent a lot of time around hospitals (MRI service), and on two occasions I've seen the life flight helicopters hit pigeons. You hear a thump, see parts of the bird hit the parking lot, and the copter flies off. If they even noticed, they certainly didn't seem to care, and I guess I always thought it was probably just a non-issue for helicopter blades. Now those are heavy turbine machines, so maybe it's not the same.

 

[WaspAir]

My Bell grosses at 2950 pounds, with 37 foot rotor diameter and wide chord heavy metal blades spinning at 310 rpm. I doubt that a pigeon would fare much better or be more destructive when compared to a larger medevac chopper; my ship would seem to be big enough for comparable results. We don't have condors here, so a golden eagle is about the biggest bird I can imagine encountering.

My first suspicion was that perhaps a bird hit a trim tab on one blade, bending it and inducing the new vibration by messing up my tracking. I was really surprised (to put it mildly) to see that damage instead. Luckily, I was quite close to home and didn't have far to go.

 

[Sv.grainne]

Metal for sure, bullet? Hard to imagine floating metal!