Free-falling clams: Langley officials fight to keep F-22s from beingdamaged"

www.usaf.mil

Langley officials fight to keep F-22s from being damaged

by Tech. Sgt. Russell Wicke
Air Combat Command Public Affairs

4/9/2008 - LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (AFPN) -- The Air Force's
newest and most technologically advanced fighter, the F-22 Raptor, is
under attack here.

Free-falling clams dropped by in-flight birds are regular air threats
to the
F-22 as gulls drop fist-sized mollusks on the Langley Air Force Base
runway to break open the shell-fish appetizer.

The birds' shelling device just happens to be a convenient launch pad
for the F-22. Although the gulls remove half their mess -- slurping up
tender meat from the runway -- they leave behind hard, brittle sea
shells for an
F-22 to suck up through its engine intake that can cause severe
damage.

Although the Air Force is wildlife friendly, Lt. Col. Lawrence
Spinetta, the 1st Fighter Wing Safety Office chief, isn't willing to
let a $10.2 million jet engine go to the birds -- or the clams.

Langley AFB officials run an aggressive flight-safety program to
mitigate the Bird and Wildlife Aircraft Strike Hazard, also called
BASH.

"BASH is particularly important for Raptors because they are so
expensive,"
Colonel Spinetta said. "If we lose one aircraft, it costs the Air
Force and taxpayers $135 million.

Most wildlife threats to aircraft are birds, although deer, coyotes,
turtles and even clams are also foreign-object-debris threats, said
Tom Olexa, a wildlife biologist from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture at Langley AFB.

"A key component of BASH is to ensure the safety for our pilots and
aircraft," Mr. Olexa said. "But we also want to protect (wildlife)
from being struck by our aircraft. There's a conservation here that
we're all responsible for."

All people, not just Air Force officials, are obligated stewards of
the environment, he said.

But "aircraft conservation" is a priority for Air Combat Command
officials, because Air Force "birds" belong to taxpayers, Colonel
Spinetta said.

"A little sparrow may not seem like it's a threat to a 60,000-pound
aircraft, but it is, particularly if it gets sucked down the intake,"
he said. Even if a bird strike doesn't cause a crash, damages soar
into the millions.

Federal Aviation Administration officials claimed birds cost the civil
aviation industry about $600 million per year. Air Force officials
coughed up approximately $16 million in 2007 from bird-strike damages.
Only a few types of birds account for the majority of the damage.
Certain species in particular do more than peck at the Air Force
wallet.

For example, the turkey vulture alone accounts for nearly 800 strikes
and more than $51 million in Air Force flying history, said Dan
Sullivan, the Air Force BASH deputy chief and wildlife scientist. It
ranks No. 1 in Air Force bird strikes.

However, the most expensive bird is the American white pelican. In
only 18 strikes, this bird accounts for more than $257 million in
damages. Mr.
Sullivan said this cost is attributed to the size and weight of the
bird -- a whopping 20 pounds -- compared to an average 5 pounds for
the turkey vulture.

"The black vulture and turkey vulture are the greatest threat to Air
Force aircraft overall because they are somewhat large and soar at
high altitudes
-- about 3,000 feet," Mr. Sullivan said. "During the day as the air
warms up, they ride a rising thermal draft. Their high altitude makes
them hard to detect from the ground."

These vultures, among other avian species, are increasing in
population because of U.S. conservation efforts, he said.

Other threatening birds at high altitudes include all raptor species.
Mr.
Sullivan said these birds are also increasing in numbers because the
U.S.
stopped using dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, a pesticide known as
DDT. The cessation of DDT use was necessary, he said, because it
threatened the once-endangered bald eagle. But an offshoot of this
action means the Air Force shares more of its airspace.

And sharing airspace with birds is a moderate concern to Air Force
pilots.

"I think it would be a life-changing event to have a 5-pound Canadian
Goose smash through your windshield at 400 knots," said Colonel
Spinetta, who is also an F-15 Eagle pilot.

No pilot wants to share the cockpit with fowl, but avoiding birds in
midair isn't an option.

"It's very difficult (to dodge a bird) at the speeds we're going, (350
to 400 mph at low altitude)," said Capt. Ray Thaler, an F-22 pilot and
chief of flight safety. "(With) birds being very small, you never
usually see them until the last half-second."

The problem is, he said, a single bird can take out an entire engine,
could break through a canopy and hit you in the cockpit. This becomes
more serious in single-engine aircraft like the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Although there is no pilot training for bird strikes as a specific
hazard, Captain Thaler said they train for many procedures, including
low-altitude engine loss, which would apply to bird strikes.

Almost nothing can be done, short term, to avoid high-altitude
strikes. But the Langley AFB BASH team is heading up a project to
track the migration of the osprey, the fifth most-dangerous bird
species to aircraft, Colonel Spinetta said. There are more than 72
osprey nests within a 20-mile radius of Langley AFB.

To mitigate the growing threat, officials from the 1st FW, NASA and
USDA came up with a unique way to track the osprey.

"Captured birds were fitted with Global Positioning Systems-capable
transmitters ... (that) transmit the altitude, speed and direction of
travel of each bird every two hours," Colonel Spinetta said in an
editorial for the Flight Safety Magazine. "As a result, Langley AFB
has been able to pinpoint nests and focus its reduction, suppression
and prevention efforts to eliminate many osprey hazards."

The nests are usually relocated to safer areas by USDA members.

Other more traditional techniques for eliminating hazards involve
harassing birds on the airfield, Mr. Olexa said. The most common tool
is simply a combination of pyrotechnics and artificial bird distress
calls, called bioacoustics. This, he said, is especially useful for
birds like gulls that drop their food on the runway. Other long-term
techniques take a bit more forethought, called habitat manipulation.

"The trick is to make the airfield less attractive to wildlife," Mr.
Sullivan said. One way is by planting certain grass species that cause
an upset stomach to geese. Another example is to avoid planting fruit/
nut producing trees.

The Langley AFB BASH team also covered tall airfield objects with
spiny metal strips, or cone shaped devices, to deny perching to birds.

One technique, which is considered a last resort, is called
depredation, or lethal action. But Mr. Sullivan said the purpose of
lethal action is to remind other birds there's an actual threat, not
to terminate the flock.

"Most of what the Air Force does in its BASH program is non-lethal,"
he said. "We move the birds away from the threat of aircraft."

The lethal action Air Force officials take is a response to birds
becoming accustomed to non-lethal methods. Lethal action on a few
birds prevents the majority from settling in an area where they would
be more endangered from aircraft strikes. Birds are smart; they begin
to understand when there's a real threat, or just harassment, Mr.
Sullivan said.

The techniques used by USDA and BASH teams have earned credibility
with Air Force commanders. From 1995 to 2000, Langley AFB officials
spent more than
$1.6 million in aircraft damage from wildlife strikes. Since they
employed the services of USDA in 2001, there was a 98 percent
reduction in cost. From
2001 to 2006 wildlife strikes accounted for a mere $31,000.

"Pocket change," Colonel Spinetta said, compared to the previous five
years'
cost. This kind of savings is exactly what BASH teams are designed to
accomplish.

"We're flying multimillion dollar aircraft that belong to our
taxpayers,"
Mr. Sullivan said. "It's our responsibility to mitigate loss of life
and equipment."

But the effort goes much further than a dollar figure. Human life and
wildlife are on the line, he said. And that's why BASH and USDA
Wildlife services are partnered up to save aircraft, pilots, birds and
maybe even a few clams.

Mike wrote:

[....]

Although the Air Force is wildlife friendly....

Yeah, we always worried about collateral damage to those Communist
sympathizing water buffalo, birds, and monkeys.


Jack