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Elk strike Oregon coast. Pilot/pax OK. Plane totaled.

We almost did that on takeoff at Roche Harbor, San Juan Island, WA. No taxiway, so you have to back-taxi the whole runway and still a pair of deer wandered onto the runway right at rotation. We cleared them by maybe 10'. If it wasn't for a CS prop and an IO-360 at sea level, probably would have hit them. This is one of those things that's really hard, if not impossible, to avoid.
 
Wow, what are the odds... Just when you get it back on the ground after the first one, a second one runs out... :eek: Glad to hear everyone made it out in one piece! (well, except the Elk...)
 
Glad everyone is ok. At my previous job we had a moose strike on a beech 1900, almost wrote off the plane. Same as this one, there was nothing they could do about it. Moose didnt fare too well in the prop arc of a pt-6.

Alex
 
From the article:

"According to a 26-year study of animal strikes by U.S. aircraft, birds accounted for 95 percent of animal strikes. Land mammals -- including dogs, cats, horses and skunks -- accounted for 1.6 percent."

This would leave better than 3% of animal strikes that are, what - flying fish, breaching whales, bats (mammals, but possibly not land mammals)? Alligators and other reptiles? I would've guessed the percentage contribution by deer and elk to be significantly higher than this.

And I still wonder what's in that missing 3.4% :confused:
 
From the article:

"According to a 26-year study of animal strikes by U.S. aircraft, birds accounted for 95 percent of animal strikes. Land mammals -- including dogs, cats, horses and skunks -- accounted for 1.6 percent."

This would leave better than 3% of animal strikes that are, what - flying fish, breaching whales, bats (mammals, but possibly not land mammals)? Alligators and other reptiles? I would've guessed the percentage contribution by deer and elk to be significantly higher than this.

And I still wonder what's in that missing 3.4% :confused:


Never say never... I have had fish bounce off my floats, and one co-worker take evasive action to avoid a whale that breached while he was landing in a narroe inlet!
 
Oct - Dec are most likely times to hit a deer on the highway in your car in Ohio. Theses months are well above the other months of the year. Probably goes for the runway too.
 
From Kathryn's Report:

A large quantity of elk meat was salvaged by the responding Fish and Wildlife troopers.

Hopefully they shared with the hunter, er, pilot. :)

Elk Jerky is quite tasty this time of year in Oregon!...Great outcome for the pilot and passenger, minus the total loss of the plane
 
I'm very grateful to read that the pilot and passenger were not injured. This could've been much worse.

As I lowered the nose of my trusty 1979 Warrior to the runway one night while returning to the center of the aviation universe, New Kent International (W96), I saw three pairs of deer eyes staring back at me.

The deer were entirely unconcerned. In contrast, I was highly concerned. Lacking confidence in my ability to get back into the air before hitting them, I locked up the brakes.

I had never locked up the brakes on an airplane before. I was absolutely delighted to find that the Warrior skidded in a perfectly straight line (thank you, tricycle gear!), albeit while making an other-worldly and very expensive-sounding squealing noise.

When I came to a stop, the !@#$!@# deer actually came over to get a closer look at the plane that almost cuisinarted them. Fist-shaking and shouting profanities at them through the little storm window accomplished nothing. I had to wait for several minutes before they ambled off.

It occurred to me that airport deer become completely desensitized to aircraft noise and, possibly, to profanity shouted by old dudes.
 
I locked up the brakes.

I had never locked up the brakes on an airplane before. I was absolutely delighted to find that the Warrior skidded in a perfectly straight line (thank you, tricycle gear!), albeit while making an other-worldly and very expensive-sounding squealing noise.

Not to put a damp rag on an otherwise entertaining story...but the static coefficient of friction is higher than the dynamic coefficient, so if you're sliding on locked-up tires, you'll actually go further than braking hard right at the edge of locking up, but not quite.
 
We are at our vacation home in Manzanita this week, one mile from the runway in the State Park.
I checked it out this morning. The airplane is severely damaged, folded gear, firewall, both wings, broken prop, just a mess. It appears they just hooked onto the tail and drug it off the runway, digging the right wing tip into the dirt and totally destroying it.
Very glad they are uninjured. Elk pose a much greater risk of injury than deer given there tall stature and significant mass.
Nehalem Bay State is a gem of an airfield with camping, beach, bay, all walking distance. However, there is no fence of any kind and I have frequently seen Elk on and around the runway. There are a lot of Elk in town. They are always here but come down from the mountains in even greater numbers when it is hunting season.
 
3S7 is one of our favorites, and I have to admit the squirrely winds was my most obvious concern till now. This has always been my "go-around practice" strip, now I can add another.
 
Happy pilot and passenger are ok. Sad for the plane. Hartzell composite prop too.


Reporters . . . well one wonders where they get their information.

Here is an excerpt from the actual 1990-2015 study:

"Number of reported wildlife strikes causing damage to civil 70 aircraft, USA, 1990?2015. The 14,287 damaging strikes involved birds (13,204), terrestrial mammals (1,073), bats (8),
and reptiles (2). An additional 358 damage strikes were reported for U.S.-registered aircraft in foreign countries (see
Tables 1 and 18)."

The readers can do the math, and it does add up!! There are a lot more statistics, data is sliced and diced many, many ways. :D Birds by altitude, deer by species, etc.
 
Oct - Dec are most likely times to hit a deer on the highway in your car in Ohio. Theses months are well above the other months of the year. Probably goes for the runway too.

Right. I hit 2 last year. 40 years of driving clean then wham. $7500 insurance bucks on my newish Jetta. Second one was on my inherited '96 Tahoe. It broke a turn signal lens. Go figure. :rolleyes: When I called the insurance on the Jetta, the adjuster was great. She said they called her the 'deer slayer' because she has hit six!! :eek: The Jetta repair went smooth as silk. :)
 
Regarding the salvage, it is sad when a bent airplane gets even more bent by careless salvage. In my experience a few guys working slowly do a lot less harm than machines working quickly. Perhaps it wouldn't have made any difference here.

We had an RV4 go over on its back a few years back. The 2 occupants hung upside down for 45min. The fire crew was there but the guy in charge wouldn't let them lift up the tail so that they could flip it over and get the guys out. I guess he thought the airplane weighed 4 tons or something. Two burly guys could have had the occupants out in 5 min. But no, they waited until a crane came. Hanging inverted for 45 min while fuel drips out is not a fun experience.
 
Not to put a damp rag on an otherwise entertaining story...but the static coefficient of friction is higher than the dynamic coefficient, so if you're sliding on locked-up tires, you'll actually go further than braking hard right at the edge of locking up, but not quite.
I'll be sure to keep the static coefficient of friction in mind next time! :)
 
Does anybody know the pilot? He is from Shoreline Wa. Has a Black Jack Squadron insignia, a pretty active formation group in the Seattle area.
Anyway, if someone knows how to get ahold of him. I have a hangar in Tillamook and might be able to offer some assistance.
I took a few photos but won't post them without his permission.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the pilot is the same gentleman who used to custom-bend RV-8 control sticks for lots of us, back in the mid-2000s. My condolences on the damage to his plane.

JonJay, I will PM you the two email address I have for him. Not sure if either of them are valid, but it's all I have.
 
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If I'm not mistaken, the pilot is the same gentleman who used to custom-bend RV-8 control sticks for lots of us, back in the mid-2000s. My condolences on the damage to his plane.

JonJay, I will PM you the two email address I have for him. Not sure if either of them are valid, but it's all I have.

That's why the name sounded so familiar - but I just couldn't place it! Long time ago.....

Sorry to see this happen, but glad the people were OK.
 
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