Bird strikes on light GA prop aircraft

"Roger (K8RI)" wrote

Depends on the windshield. It could be one of the reasons for going to
a one piece. The one piece, speed sloped (tm) windshield in the
Bonanza is far stronger than the original two piece. Mine is 1/2"
thick. I've bounced some pretty big birds off it. It's silent in
torrential rain where the old plexiglass in the Cherokee 180 was
deafening in heavy rain.


Wow, I'll bet it is a lot quieter! I didn't know anyone made 1/2" thick
windshields for these sized planes. I'll bet it is heavy, but in my
opinion, worth every pound.
--
Jim in NC

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:51:04 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:


"Roger (K8RI)" wrote

Depends on the windshield. It could be one of the reasons for going to
a one piece. The one piece, speed sloped (tm) windshield in the
Bonanza is far stronger than the original two piece. Mine is 1/2"
thick. I've bounced some pretty big birds off it. It's silent in
torrential rain where the old plexiglass in the Cherokee 180 was
deafening in heavy rain.


Wow, I'll bet it is a lot quieter! I didn't know anyone made 1/2" thick
windshields for these sized planes. I'll bet it is heavy, but in my
opinion, worth every pound.

The book says half inch, but I can only find 3/8" currently available.
Still, 3/8 is one whale of a lot more sturdy than the thin 1/8" stuff.

BTW the side windows including the doors are 1/4" on the Deb and it is
definitely quieter. Still noisy but quieter than original.:-))

Maxwell wrote:

Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.

A friend of our once took a songbird in one of the cooling holes on the cowl of his RV-4.
After he spent a week cleaning burned feathers and guts out from the cylinder fins, we
stuck a bird silhouette and a "birdman" callsign on his canopy.

On Aug 20, 12:51 pm, "Maxwell" wrote:

Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.

Too many pilots think about the wing or windshield, while tail,
much more lightly constructed, is a really vulnerable section. See the
picture of the Cherokee on this page:
http://planeplaces.com/

I've had a few encounters with big birds, and they aren't
afraid of the airplane. Some, especially hawks and eagles, can get
aggressive toward airplanes in what they consider their territory. I
regularly have to dodge hawks, and a few years ago an eagle gave me an
awful scare. He'd have taken the tail clean off the airplane if he'd
hit it. Tailless airplanes don't fly well at all.

Dan

In article .com,
wrote:

On Aug 20, 12:51 pm, "Maxwell" wrote:

Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.

Too many pilots think about the wing or windshield, while tail,
much more lightly constructed, is a really vulnerable section. See the
picture of the Cherokee on this page:
http://planeplaces.com/

I've had a few encounters with big birds, and they aren't
afraid of the airplane. Some, especially hawks and eagles, can get
aggressive toward airplanes in what they consider their territory. I
regularly have to dodge hawks, and a few years ago an eagle gave me an
awful scare. He'd have taken the tail clean off the airplane if he'd
hit it. Tailless airplanes don't fly well at all.

Dan

Dan, you are SO right!

A friend took a buzzard in the leading edge of his right wing on an
SX-300. It made a hole about 8 inches across (.040 skin) and lodged
inside the wet cell. Fortunately, he had fuel in the left side and was
coming up on a formation "break", landing safely. A couple of weeks
after repairs, he hit an eagle with the wingtip, which removed the
plastic lens and the strobe/wingtip light. We don't know how much damage
the eagle took.

Another friend (also an SX-300) hit a vulture with the top surface of
his left wing. It made a dent, but no fuel was lost, nor was the metal
broken.

I have seen a number of vulture strikes, where the wing leading edge is
smashed all the way to the spar.

Another friend took a vulture in a Bonanza at the top of the left side
of the upper cowl. It destroyed that part of the cowl and made a huge
dent in the firewall. Fortunately, the bird (or what was left of it) did
not penetrate the windshield.

A vulture in the tail assembly of any of these would have brought them
down.

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 11:44:31 -0400, Bob Martin
wrote:

Maxwell wrote:

Any first had experiences out there? Any speculation on what could have
happened if he struck the wing tip, or better yet the propeller arc? I was
flying a Cessna 172SP. His flight path was exactly the opposite direction.

A friend of our once took a songbird in one of the cooling holes on the cowl of his RV-4.
After he spent a week cleaning burned feathers and guts out from the cylinder fins, we
stuck a bird silhouette and a "birdman" callsign on his canopy.

My wife and I were taking a couple that have been friends for years on
their first small plane ride (Cherokee 180) about 50 feet above the
runway on climb out a bird went through the prop and appeared to
bounce off the corner of the windshield. I decided to play it safe
and flew a relatively tight pattern and landed.

It must have been a large song bird as the entire area between the two
cylinders on the pilot's side was packed solid. It was fairly well
cooked, but easy to remove and we had no overheating. Had we continued
on there might have been.

I also hit a Seagull just coming in over the numbers. It hit about 3/4
of the way out on the leading edge of the wing. Not even a dent and
when we parked, his buddies were already cleaning up the runway.