Close encounters of the Bird Kind

[Bundy]

There is a similar thread on Avcom about this.

In just under 100 hrs, I have not (yet) hit a single feathered friend but I have been close many times! It seems to be general practice to try and climb due to the fact that most birds will tuck their wings and dive to avoid you? Whats your experience?

At FABA we have many close calls with those little white eagrets. They seem to take forever to get off the ground and have a nasty habit of changing direction into your flight path once airbourne.

Guinea Fowl and Franklin also give me the shits because they appear out of nowhere...usually get spooked out of the longer grass/bush either side of the runway as you pass...
Have also flown through vast squadrons of swallows at levels of 1500ft and higher AGL....never hit a single one?

I must say that having had so many close encounters I'm actually surprised not to have hit one yet. Perhaps it's just a testement to their superior flying skills?

Interested to hear your tales.

[mulderpm]

As PIC I have only hit one on takeoff at Delmas and the Kiewiet (Crowned Plover/Lapwing) hit my right back wheel. If Stefan and Dionne, who took off after me, did not see it I would not have known. Daar lê die areme outjie, bones in the light. One other strike was in a Piper Arrow on landing at Springs when some unrecognisable bird hit the leading edge of the left wing. Again, if we did not see the "puff" of feathers we would not have known we hit a bird. Where the difference may come in, is if the bird is large and it strikes the pilot or the prop. Especially, if it strikes you in the face or on your hands. That is one reason why some pilots always fly with a flight suit and gloves. I have not heard of a bird strike causing a Trike to crash.

I think bird strikes are so rare because, firstly, they are much better fliers than what we are and can therefore take evasive action much better than what we can dream of, even Helmeted Guinea Fowl. Then secondly, we fly very slowly in comparison to most birds, giving them ample time to avoid us. Thirdly, our frontal area is quite small. The golden rule when birds are in front of you at altitude is to always climb. They tend to dive to avoid you. During take off and landing, the only thing you can do is to try to ignore them.

Dionne, who always tried to avoid the Kiewiet’s on the runway was told by her instructor, “forget about them, they can out fly you any day, and if you concentrate on trying to avoid them you may have an accident.”

It is scary though when they are in front of you and don’t seem to be getting out the way quick enough.

[Loco]

None for me yet but had some jakkalse on the runway @ Rhino lol

[nicow]

None for me yet but had some jakkalse on the runway @ Rhino lol

Ons het jakkalse,vlakvarke,rooibokke,nyalas en kudus op ons vliegveld-o ja kiewiete fisante en tarantale is ook orals....

[Loco]

None for me yet but had some jakkalse on the runway @ Rhino lol

Ons het jakkalse,vlakvarke,rooibokke,nyalas en kudus op ons vliegveld-o ja kiewiete fisante en tarantale is ook orals....

haha julle moet baie wakker wees as julle kom land

[Alkemac]

Worst bird strike I ever heard about was while it was still sitting in the tree

[nicow]

Worst bird strike I ever heard about was while it was still sitting in the tree

That's a bad one .

[mulderpm]

None for me yet but had some jakkalse on the runway @ Rhino lol

Ons het jakkalse,vlakvarke,rooibokke,nyalas en kudus op ons vliegveld-o ja kiewiete fisante en tarantale is ook orals....

Klink asof julle vliegveld in n' dieretuin is. Of, is dit die bynaame van die ouens wat daar vlieg.

[John.com]

Hey Alan! Of course, my birdstrike caught on camera!

Watch it HERE!

VULTURE ALERT!!!!
On the SOUTH side of the Magalieserg Northern Ridge directly behind Aeroden is where a very large vulture colony nests (look for white on the rock faces directly adjacent the road that comes over the dam. Be VERY careful in this area. Only yesterday, on the northern side of the ridge I had about 20 vultures below me and about 10 just above me . . . . thankfully none in my line of flight! All of them were well below the ridge height, making them that much harder to see! Hit one of these mothers and you are not going to continue flying, THAT much I will give to you in writing!

Fortunately, I think that our low speeds in trikes assists with limiting the number of bird-strikes, in that they are able to get out the way of us more easily!

Safe Skies!

John.com

[Loco]

John can you please post the coords of the vulture colony? Many thanks

[John.com]

John can you please post the coords of the vulture colony? Many thanks

Sure thing Ant, here you go:

25°44'49.89"S
27°46'14.02"E

As I said, the white rocks are the nesting areas but they can be found all over the area, travelling very far and at high altitudes . . . . so EYES WIDE!

Also, Google Earth kmz file below!

[Dish]

Worst Bird Strike I ever had was when I asked a chick if she wouldn't mind bringing her sister home with us as well..... strike me she did !!! hard...

[Hak]

I ALMOST HAD A K STRIKE ON A BIKE IN MALAWI

[Turbo]

Took off on runway 21 at FASI (springs) with just on 20 hrs total flying time, and oom Paul and I had a bunch of our feathered friends decide to fly by our path, needless to say, we hit one of these guys on take off, and was too late to land back on the runway, so we did a short circuit and simulated engine out, landed on the runway and found the decapitated body lying on the runway. Thank goodness there was no prop damage!

The guinea fowl loventhe tarred runway at springs - be warned specially early morning and late afternoon, there are about 30 of them that congregate on the runway and scatter all over the place when a plane arrives. Hit one of these and you'll loose a prop!!!

[Tjoek]

I hit a adder on an early morning take off from a tar strip in the Northern Cape. Front wheel went over it but no prop strike. Did a thorough post flight inspection to make sure there are no passengers!