Chicken Cannon Lovers

Birds and Lieutenants scare me more than anything in the air...

I second Jim's words -- seems the MOAs and Restricted Areas have an
abundance of turkey buzzards and re-tailed hawks -- lethal-sized creatures
when they get in your way at high Q.

I've run into four birds in the course of my career, 3 daytime, 1 at night
(at 1500'AGL). Fortunately, they were the smaller varieties -- 2 starlings,
2 undetermined. One of the starlings punched a neat hole the size of my
fist in the leading edge of the intake, went through a couple vertical frame
members and lodged next to a fuel cell. Never knew anything happened 'til a
PC found it post flight in the fuel pits...Class C damage at the time.



"Jim Carriere" wrote in message
...
"Kristan Roberge" wrote in message
...
How often do you strike 4 pounds of bird? Other than ducks and geese, I
can't
think of many 4 pound birds you might run a plane into.

Um, there's lots... I've dodged plenty of hawks and buzzards- big ones
over
5 foot wingspan too. It depends what area you fly in I guess.

Buzzards aren't God's smartest creatures either, they don't seem to yield
to
anything no matter how big it is. (Even seagulls will give you right of
way
if they see you in time.)

"Susan VanCamp" wrote in message hlink.net...
Birds and Lieutenants scare me more than anything in the air...

I second Jim's words -- seems the MOAs and Restricted Areas have an
abundance of turkey buzzards and re-tailed hawks -- lethal-sized creatures
when they get in your way at high Q.

I've run into four birds in the course of my career, 3 daytime, 1 at night
(at 1500'AGL). Fortunately, they were the smaller varieties -- 2 starlings,
2 undetermined. One of the starlings punched a neat hole the size of my
fist in the leading edge of the intake, went through a couple vertical frame
members and lodged next to a fuel cell. Never knew anything happened 'til a
PC found it post flight in the fuel pits...Class C damage at the time.

Luckiest bird strike story I've ever heard occurred in the sixties at
the AFB I was living on at the time. Pupil pilot on solo night flight
in MB326 was on the approach, a couple of miles out, when he called
the tower saying he was climbing and abandoning the approach as he
thought he'd suffered a birdstrike. Aircraft
seemed fine so he made a second approach and landed safely without
further ado.

On inspection feathers, blood, damage to the wing leading edge and
sand were found. Sand? Next morning they took a chopper and flew
along this character's
flight path to see if they could find the victim. And indeed, about 4
miles before the runway they found a dead ostrich on a sand dune. The
pupil pilot had been misreading his altimeter by a 1000 feet
(apparently fairly easy to do with those old altimeters) and was
virtually on the deck when he thought he was up in the wild blue (or
black, for pedants) still. When he climbed to gain altitude and
assess the damage it is thought he must have barely scraped past a set
of high-tension electrical cables right in front of the dune. Very
lucky little boy, that!

"Jim Carriere" wrote:

:"Kristan Roberge" wrote in message
...
: How often do you strike 4 pounds of bird? Other than ducks and geese, I can't
: think of many 4 pound birds you might run a plane into.
:
:Um, there's lots... I've dodged plenty of hawks and buzzards- big ones over
:5 foot wingspan too. It depends what area you fly in I guess.
:
:Buzzards aren't God's smartest creatures either, they don't seem to yield to
:anything no matter how big it is. (Even seagulls will give you right of way
:if they see you in time.)

Yeah. I still recall the flight out of Dallas where we took a bird
strike to one of the engines by a turkey buzzard. Big and not very
smart.

--
"Rule Number One for Slayers - Don't die."
-- Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

Kristan Roberge muttered....



How often do you strike 4 pounds of bird? Other than ducks and geese,
I can't think of many 4 pound birds you might run a plane into.


For years - back when a/c ranges were more limited than today's birds, the
USN operated a/c (landbased and "seaplanes")out of scenic Midway I., where
the local frigate birds/albatross ran a few bits over 4 pounds. In the US,
with so many airports having been built adjacent to water...JFK, LGW, DCA,
to name a prominent few, migratory ducks and geese are regular airport
visitors. Several old SAC bases could have pheasant "On Final" and
crossing departure runways.

"TUSIABP"*

*The US is a "birdy" place....

TMO

"Olivers" wrote in message
...
Kristan Roberge muttered....



How often do you strike 4 pounds of bird? Other than ducks and geese,
I can't think of many 4 pound birds you might run a plane into.


For years - back when a/c ranges were more limited than today's birds, the
USN operated a/c (landbased and "seaplanes")out of scenic Midway I., where
the local frigate birds/albatross ran a few bits over 4 pounds. In the
US,
with so many airports having been built adjacent to water...JFK, LGW, DCA,
to name a prominent few, migratory ducks and geese are regular airport
visitors. Several old SAC bases could have pheasant "On Final" and
crossing departure runways.

"TUSIABP"*

*The US is a "birdy" place....

Yep. He obviously is not too familiar with ornithology, as he missed out
also on the ubiquitous turkey buzzards and pelicans we have here in the
states, not to mention the rapidly growing eagle populations. On a trip back
home from visiting my parents recently, the wife and I watched a bald eagle
majestically circling right over the runway of the region's most active
skydiving airfield; a couple of years back my boss took me out for a
lunchtime visit to a local pond he had heard about where we counted about
eight eagles roosting in trees around its banks, and the local game warden
told us that they had actually counted over twenty at that spot a few days
earlier.

Brooks


TMO

"Keith Willshaw" wrote:

Hmmm, I suspect when dealing with a kg of water it makes a
big difference to the fan blades if that water is frozen
in a single lump.

It was interesting the extraordinary damage a 100MPH chicken
caused to that little Beechcraft. It looked like a 20mm hit.



----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups
---= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

(John S. Shinal) wrote:

"Keith Willshaw" wrote:

Hmmm, I suspect when dealing with a kg of water it makes a
big difference to the fan blades if that water is frozen
in a single lump.

It was interesting the extraordinary damage a 100MPH chicken
caused to that little Beechcraft. It looked like a 20mm hit.

The pumpkin shot they took at it at the end of the show was
impressive too. Finished off the destruction of the safety
enclosure begun during all the chicken shooting.

[They'd had a veteran of the world famous World Pumpkin Chucking
Championships [http://www.whatsonwhen.com/events/~46624.jml]
who'd used air cannons in his winning efforts {a 1 mile shot}
as their technical/safety expert/advisor, so naturally ...]
--
OJ III
[Email sent to Yahoo addy is burned before reading.
Lower and crunch the sig and you'll net me at comcast]