Any Bird Strike experiences ?

[kmach]

Hi,

Yesterday while flying my passenger was asking what would a bird do to the

aircraft if we hit one.

I like all try not to find that one out, but I was

wondering if anyone has ever had a bird strike with a Kitfox and what damage

occurred .

[HighWing]

Personally, I have never experienced a bird strike, but have friends who have. One ingested a bird through the opening in the round cowl, no effects to the airplane, but a mess to clean up. Another took a bird hit to the leading edge of the wing with no effects. A video clip I took several years ago while flying Idaho - http://highwingllc.com/videoarchivepages/birdstrike.html
Lowell

[N276KM]

I've had a bird strike on a Cessna 152 I was flying, but never on my Avid. The pidgeon hit the aluminum prop and splattered, but beyond the mess on the windshield there was no damage. None of the pieces were large enough to crack the plexi.

The polycarbonate on Avids and Kitfoxes is more flexible and I would be surprised if a small bird would come all the way through. I don't doubt that it would crack the lexan, but unless it was a duck or goose I wouldn't expect it to end up in the seat with me.

[rwaltman]

One of my glider instructors had a mid-air with a bird.
He landed with a broken canopy and a few cuts in his face.
Fortunately he was not incapacitated, something that a bird strike could easily cause.

Roberto.

[Dave S]

Kevin,

The only bird contact I have personally had with the kitfox was nerfing a sparrow off the right side of the cowl on takeoff. Must have gone beak first because some paint was chipped; otherwise just some bird gunk and feathers stuck to the side.

Other experiences I am aware of:

1) a person who had a canadian goose get up on very short final in front of his 172....hooked it with the prop, left the innards on the windscreen with no penetration and the body hit the left wing, eating up all $1000 of the guys deductible. Total bill was allegedly about $5000.

2) A person repairing a Bellanca after hitting a mallard in the windscreen in cruise flight. Penetrated the top of windshield, occupants OK....duck ended up in the end of the tailcone inside the plane and punched holes in everything in between.

3) One of my friends bounced a seagull off the top of the wing of a 152 with no consequences to the plane or passengers...very low angle impact.

I think one of the best defenses is to be aware of bird habits and bird concentrations. Study the little feathered creatures when we can.

Not all birds have the same reaction to an airplane in their environment.

Canadian geese and seagulls are both big and really stupid.....I watch for them near an airport and when descending or taking off - especially during spring and fall migration times. Young geese are stupider yet...

Hawks will fly pretty high (lot of red tails in the Midwest) but I have seen that they have pretty good awareness and will fold their wings and drop if encountering an airplane in the sky (so climb, don't dive)...I think they see us before we see them. Seen hawks up to about 3000 AGL. Hawks hunting for mice near the ground and runway....way different deal - they seem to focus on their prey in this instance and don't see airplanes.

Like to keep an eye out for buzzards....we have the turkey vultures and they don't seem to give a rat's elbow who is in their sky, but they are pretty easy to see and move in a fairly predictable manner. Buzzards seem to like pattern altitude....

Most of the non-contact bird close encounters I have seen tend to occur during takeoff or landing close to the surface or within 1000' of the ground. Also in the habit of making bird presence reports on the CTAF to help other pilots know where the little buggers are. ...."Gaggle of geese on midfield crosswind @ 500' AGL..."

Non pilot first time passengers have a tendency to ask questions that we aren't always prepared to answer without some thinking. Probably a good reason to bring non-pilot first time passengers with us to keep us on our toes and cause us to think about the answers a little.

The answers we can give are going to concentrate pilot training regarding awareness, avoidance of the risk and emergency procedures (engine failure/pitot failure/windshield failure, etc which could result from a bird strike).

In the back of my head I have considered that as slow as a kitfox takes off and lands.....the birds should have a pretty good chance of getting out of our way if they want to....

Photo attached of the only non-standard bird proofing installed on our kitfox....a reinforcing edge on the back of the air scoop.

My sense is that lots of pilots have near encounters woth birds. Just one of the things we have to watch for. The fact that a kitfox does not go 300 knots might be an advantage

Looking up "bird strikes in the NTSB database should give some empirical information as to what has happened with light aircraft and birds. Maybe sometime when it is foggy & ugly outside......

I wonder if instructors doing a BFR ever engage the issue???

Sincerely,

Dave S
KF 7 Trigear
9*12ULS, Warp Drive

[Slyfox]

I fly with birds all the time. I've seen birds at all altitudes. My worst birds and I have hit is the sparrow, darn little things, I don't think they know where they are going. Anyway, keep your kool with the bigger ones and look out for them. I've had larger birds fly right twards me, if I have to I always pull up and bank at the same time so they, if any, hit on the bottom of the plane, never had that happen,but have done the pullout. Birds will drop when you get close to them, like 20ft away. I've had eagles fly right tward me 10 ft from my wing many a time they don't even flinch, just fly by like I'm not even there, this is at about 80mph. I've had eagles fly up to me and almost keep with me for a few second along side. I've had black birds on approach to landing, they all seem to be pretty predictable. The worst birds are the ones around the airports, seems these are aquinated to air travel, they won't move for nothing, I've had to move out of their way more than many.