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My bird hit a few birds :(


damnpoor
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Last week one of our planes hit some birds while flying low over the Pacific ocean. It was flying great all week, and now it\'s grounded for a few stupid seagulls.

One tried to skewer itself on the pitot tube and left messy blood all over the nose by the crew door, another bounced off the armpit area and left blood and guts streaked all down the side from near the ATM all the way back to the paratroop door. The third bird went clean through the leading edge on the horizontal stab. [img size=400]http://herkybirds.com/images/fbfiles/images/birdhole1.jpg

Please share your best bird strike stories.

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The best (or worst considering the damage) was a eagle deciding that the leading edge, inboard of NO 2 engine looked like a good place to crash. The bird severed/damaged around 60 wires in the area, thankfully nothing vital but it did take several days to repair. Thankfully the damage occured on approach to home base and made the repair work that much easier once the mess was cleaned up.

We also had a bat over in Papua New Guinea decide that the nose cone of the propeller was a good place it hit and embedded itself in the small hole whilst a friend shredded the nose cone of the adjacent propeller.

Of course many other bird/bat strikes occured but i do recall those two the best.

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The best one that I ever saw in the Herc happened on the ground. I was pulling SOF out in the SOF truck trying to help a crew get off the ground. The mission had \"Ops Late\" written all over it. Crew decided to do the engine runup in the chocks (normal procedure as our ramp was a christmas tree. While they were doing the run up I saw two birds chasing each other. They both tried to fly thru the prop arc. One made it, the other was severed cleanly in two. Told the crew to shut down engines as they had just taken a bird strike. Got the old you\'re kidding when I got up on the flight deck. We found both parts of the second bird as well as where a chunk of the prop had been taken out. Needless to say, the crew didn\'t fly that day and maint had to do a blend job on the prop.

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I\'ve never had a major birdstrike myself - nothing with any significant damage. Have had several in the various units I\'ve been in like when I was in 52d, we had one through the center windscreen on a Red Route @ POB many years ago - SKE scope saved the FE on that one. I think one of only three documented center windscreen penetrations. P,CP,FE covered in blood & glass - think it was a turkey vulture too, so you know it stunk good!

When I was at Hurbie, we had one go through the leading edge & into the spar in S. America - got one-time flight home & long repair.

At Kirtland a few years back, we had a goose through the metal under the center windscreen - very messy as all the backs of the instruments got covered with that one.

One at the 1st - 155K takeoff in the PI took well over 300 counted birdstrikes, lost #1 and #2 decayed to 70% and overtemped, but eventually recovered - needless to say, the crew didn\'t shut it down as they frantically dumped & came back around.

I used to say there\'d never been a loss of a 130 due to birds, but I was recently informed of a Belgian 130 that crashed in the Netherlands. Had a flock of birds flush as they were coming in on approach, so they went around & lost power on three engines, rolled, & cartwheeled - almost all aboard died (Dutch band in the back!) - this was at Eindhoven in \'96...

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During the 80\'s, we got the call one of our birds(?) had a birdstrike, and was coming home for repairs. When she flew overhead, it looked like it had been painted with a gloss-coating. After landing we saw it was helo blade-tape over most of the leading edges - during a low-level leg they had surprized a flock of crow-sized birds.

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Two of the biggest bird strikes that stick out in my mind as a crew dawg is:

I was stationed at LR in the 53rd when we had one of our tails 62-1810 take a bird in the Co-pilots swing window. The plane called in A-3 and needed an ambulance at the spot. The bird hit the window square and broke the window latch and pin bracket. The co had his hand on the yoke at the time and when the window flung open it pinched his hand to the wheel. Needless to say it broke his hand pretty good (that one had to freaking hurt).

Also, I have seen many bird strikes as I have replaced many L/E, Radomes, and windows. The one that sticks out in my mind is the Guard plane that took the Eagle in the fwd kick windows. I mean damn, it looks like someone was butchered in the flight deck.

That was my two cents. You all have a good one!!

DaveB)

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When I was at Little Rock 7765 took a direct hit to the RH outbd leading edge right into the piccolo tube and hit hard enough to crack a couple of the support ribs, that smelled and looked really bad. A funny one that happpen was a Frontier airlines A319 coming back from cancun to nashville was taxiing to the gate, and a little swallow was fliting around the F/O window and then along side the right fuslage and when it got near those big CFM56\'s was sucked in, came out the aft side all you saw was feathers shooting out, didn\'t do any damage to the fan section and it exited out the top of the bypass so nothing went into the engine.

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On my checkride (of course) hit 3 ducks. One just inboard of #2 and one at the right wingbase. #2 immediately lost power and was feathered, #1 throttle was a little stiff. On rollout, got every overheat light on the right wing on. 7 of 8 engine control cables on left wing had to be replaced and throttle cable for #2 was broke. Coordinator was at 9 degrees with throttle in takeoff. (got lucky on that one) Overheat lights were from the right wingbase. Bird took out an overheat sensor and wire bundle. When we slowed down and got less airflow into the hole in the leading edge, the wires swung down and shorted out the overheat system. Lots of OB\'s and what ifs before we got that bird home.

Mike

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One of our trips out of CRB (64-65) time frame.

We had to fly over some body of water and there were muzzel flashes comeing from everywhere.

Something hit the windscreen, don\'t know which one. The CP said duck so I did after the fact.

We couldn\'t find any signs of damage when we landed, so I don\'t know what it was.

I did find some skid marks when I changed clothes.

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US Herk wrote:

One at the 1st - 155K takeoff in the PI took well over 300 counted birdstrikes, lost #1 and #2 decayed to 70% and overtemped, but eventually recovered - needless to say, the crew didn\'t shut it down as they frantically dumped & came back around.

Before I got to my unit we had one plane scare up a bunch of birds during approach. They were all hiding in the grass and on the stripes of the approach end and flew straight up into the plane\'s flight path. They counted 277 bird strikes and had to change 3 engines and several leading edges. Then, and here\'s the best part, they had them all form up and take a MXS group photo in front of it!

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At \"The Rock\" back in the mid 70s, we had a Herk that hit a bird while the bird was sitting in a tree.

I was there, in the 16th TATS, for that one. It was a 50th crew on 73-1588, if I remember correctly. Coming in at night, decided to do a \"non-standard\" opposite end approach and landing to runway 7 (if I remember the runway numbers right) to save time. Saved flight time by a few minutes but played hell with the maintenance time and crew debrief time.

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When at Pope in the late 80s we had an acft in Africa hit an BIG eagle. Went between the props on left wing. Big enough that it demolished the nose cone on the ext tank and then proceeded into the center leading edge. Wasn\'t much left of it either...hit with enough force that it destroyed the leading edge and damaged the leading edge hinge segement on the spar side.

As a Sheet Metal guy, I\'ve fixed many a bird strike but this was the worst one I\'ve ever seen.

Scott

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That\'s the one! Wing CC, CV, DO, and 50th CC lost their jobs over that one. The AC already had orders and PCS\'d to another command before the roof fell. The CP, FE, N, and LM were all downgraded to UNQ. The CP was telling the AC to get him to pull up to the MDA. He finally tried to take control but too late.

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Well, I wasn\'t anywhere near this event, and had nothing at all to do with it; but I just happened to have the pictures. Pretty dramatic... [img size=800]http://herkybirds.com/images/fbfiles/images/birdstrike1.jpg

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Had the flight crew call in a possible bird strike on a night sortie. Met the acft and no blood or guts anywhere were noted. During the BPO the c/c noticed a hawk claw sticking out of a crack on the #3 spinner. The bird had struck the spinner, split it enough for the whole bird to enter the spinner and struck the dome. The complete, totally destroyed bird except it\'s claw was inside the spinner. Bill

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Worst birdstrike I know of was at EDF a few years ago. E-3 taking off and sucked some seagulls into the engines. It crashed and burned off the end of the runway.

Yep, I used to have a buddy at Tinker that crosstrained to become an ART (airborne radar tech) and he was on that flight. Too bad and he was a pretty cool dude too.

Had one birdstrike when we landed at Nellis, when we were taxiing in I put my head up out the hatch and #2 engine nacelle looked like it had been in Elton Johns wardrobe. The whole nacelle and prop was covered with big white feathers!

Must have been something that was living and flying around Lake Powell, strange thing was no damage.

At Kirtland we always had problems with birds - always! Had one week where the commander (Ltc Ellis) flew three times and all three times had damaging bird strikes, and by damaging I mean entering the airframe.

I flew with him on the third flight and just had to laugh on my post flight, I seen some holes in the vertical stab but when I got the the space between #1 and #2 you seen a hole and all that was sticking out were a couple of chicken feet LOL.

Strange one is when your looking at the IDS (or FLIR as its usually incorrectly called) and take a birdstike on the sensor itself:woohoo:

Dan

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