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Hawk

n5lp

fugio ergo sum
I don't think I can impart any new wisdom but the experience made an impression on me.

In my area we have many turkey vultures and I am alert for them. I find they are almost always at around 500 ft AGL which makes it easier. I have made evasive maneuvers even as recently as two weeks ago while in the landing pattern. They are huge and slow flying and that tends to help make it easy to spot them.

Yesterday I was flying at about 155 knots at 1,500 MSL over the Delaware River of West Texas. I had my attention out the front of the airplane in a relaxed way. Suddenly, right now, there was a hawk and I reacted by pulling and the hawk dived at the same time. This was all within half a second or so. I got a real good close up look at that bird and missed it by 10 feet or so. I apologized to my passenger as I felt I maneuvered pretty abruptly. As it turned out I only pulled a bit over 2 Gs and he didn't see the bird. I felt that even if I had hit the bird I would have had time to duck down.

This is all with my attention outside the cockpit. I guess the lesson is to look out as much as possible and I have seen hawks at quite high altitudes so that doesn't only apply when low.

Boy I have a vivid picture in my mind of the exact feather patterns on that bird.
 
Bald Eagles

Larry,

I have had the same situation several times this spring with Bald Eagles. Those thongs get really big and can be aggressive. I've had a couple of instances where I thought they wanted to engage.

A month or so ago I was on my way to a local lunch at about 3,000' over the Puget Sound when I saw what I thought was a big airplane pretty far away converging at about 90 degrees from the left.

After a few more seconds of watching closely I saw it was an eagle really close at exactly my altitude. I pulled high right and he pulled high left and extended the speed brakes. We only missed each other by a few feet. A collision wouldn't have done either of us any good.

Now I always keep an Eagle eye out for avian traffic.
 
many in NC

The Hawks and Buzzards are both in great numbers around the Carolinas. I have seen them at above 3K MSL (over 2K AGL), and our airport (in the country) usually has a few in the area on any given day." Head on a swivel" as they say...
 
I too have a vivid image, mine is of a Red Tailed Hawk. Sounds like a similar situation but I was at pattern altitude. It would have hit the windscreen of the 172 right in front of my left shoulder. It dove straight; I pulled up and right. I remember that red tail passing just in front of the prop arc.
 
99% of the time, the bird will always dive and that's something to remember for anyone that hasn't encountered one in flight yet.
 
Birds in the flight levels!

I have had a few close calls above 8000 MSL. I missed a blue heron by less than 5 feet while cruising down V441 at 8500 MSL west of Jacksonville. I have also had several times where I missed a buzzard by less than 100 feet while cruising between 8000 and 13,500 MSL.

My dad has told me multiple stories of near misses with buzzards and geese when flying fighters and corporate jets in the flight levels. He says he has seen buzzards above 40,000 a couple of times.

The local flight shcool had a C-172S take a buzzard through the windshield in the pattern with a solo student pilot at the controls. The bird took out the head rest of the copilot seat, penetrated the aft baggage compartment bulkhead cover and was wedged in the aft fuselage. There was so much blood from the bird and the student pilot on what was left of the windshield that the pilot had to look out the side windows to be able to maneuver and land the 172. Even the airspeed indicator was so covered in blood that I doubt he could see what his approach speed was. He did an excellent job of getting the aircraft down and even said it was one of his best landings.

I have flown with a fellow GA pilot who would not even try and avoid birds. When queried why he did not make evasive maneuvers he told me "they will get out of you're way, you are more likely to hit them while trying to avoid them" I don't subscribe to that theory. I know for a fact that I would have hit at least two large birds if I had not taken immediate action. My procedure is to pull up and roll away from the bird. If I did end up taking the bird strike while maneuvering, at least the impact would hopefully be on the lower cowling or belly skin instead of through the windshield.
 
I hit a small bird with the RV a few years back. All I remember thinking was "BI" then BAM. No time to maneuver before the impact.

Luck for me, it was a small bird that made it through the prop and hit the left wing about a foot from the fuselage, just at the crest of the wing. It took off some paint but no other damage.
 
I was called a bird magnet before...

Good subject Larry. I have four confirmed kills with my RV and the first one (a goose) was memorable and downright scary. Sheared wheel pant in half. Next three - a bat, a swallow and a seagull were treated easier. If not epoxied dings on my Catto I would forget the details. 2015 is a year of peace with ornithopters some of them even allow me to get closer and draw a camera. Couldn't focus though ... :)
 
Which way will that bird go?

I seem to recall that my default move for bird avoidance is to pull UP and that the most dangerous birds are those ~100-300ft ABOVE me because they tend to DESCEND quickly when startled.

Please refresh my memory.

Thanks
 
Prevention and avoidance is key but what if you do take a strike on the wind screen? Ouch!

I wonder if there is a product available that can be applied to the wind screen as a clear ballistic laminate that would significantly absorb the energy of the bird strike and maybe even prevent it from penetrating the wind screen.

Google revealed this clear film product:

https://www.google.com/#safe=active&q=ballistic+window+film


Anybody have experience with this stuff?
 
I was taking off in a King Air one day. Just at rotation, I saw a bird come from the left side of the runway, flapping as fast as it possibly could. At first I was worried about the left prop/engine. Was quite relieved when it looked like it was going to hit the nose cone. To my dismay, it reappeared on the other side of the nose and heading towards the right prop. The bird ended up going between the right prop and my window.

At 10-20' above the runway, there's no room or energy to maneuver. I remember thinking "here comes my first engine failure". Due entirely to luck, I escaped that one by the width of a feather;)

That plane has multiple layered laminate front windows. It's mostly for the electric window anti-ice though. Never heard an mention of it being "bird proof".
 
Had a friend who survived a goose strike in a C152. He was a retired Air Force pilot and he had a friend who was also a retired Air Force pilot who had come to town for a visit. He/they rented a 152 for an aerial tour of Decatur, Alabama. As they were returning to the local airport just before sundown a goose came through the windshield. Wheeler Wildlife Refuge is home to hundreds of geese during migration season.

The short version of his story went like this. Boom! Sound of rushing air. No headphones, no communication. Most of windshield gone, blood and feathers everywhere. Plus noise, cold air in the face, and fear. He, as PIC, realized air speed slowing due to tremendous drag. His friend being a pilot wondered why the PIC was pointing the nose down, and in the confusion, thought he was unconscious or out of his mind to be pointing nose down...so he pulled on the yoke. Tug of war and a few elbows at each other, plus full throttle, finally resulted in control of airspeed by PIC.

Both glad to be back on the ground.

I've thought of this almost every time I've flown near the Wildlife Refuge.
 
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