Posted on 03/01/2006 1:14:25 PM PST by Dashing Dasher
And if that's not enough to prove these people are idiots, 30 seconds worth of Googling came up with this nice little list of birdstrike incidents...
http://www.birdstrike.org/commlink/signif.htm
}:-)4
http://www.nwased.com/
Lower left hand side...
Birdstrike Video....
I couldn't believe that. I heard about this last night and was dumb struck that the airport was leasing out the land for this stuff - that is harmful to aviaiton. Abandoned pear orchard... BIRDS, Wetlands - BIRDS, etc. etc. etc. The list is long about what's wrong at SMF - but the FAA is on the warpath. This has gone on too long.
Good choice on staying clear of SMF and those big ole 737 and 757 Birds.
;-)
That's why I like the little airports. And, the service is better.
True. A bird strike is only reported if it causes damage or a 121 or 135 captain is covering hiney.
I've had a prop strike something small but with an awful lot of blood, innards (stuff my English relatives probably eat) and guano in it. I swear, the sum of the parts was great than the whole after kissing my propeller at 25/25. I also had a near miss with an eagle that was scavenging a crow in the middle of a runway -- some previous pilot's airkill.
Bummed me out to see that the symbol of our nation is a scavenger.
On the bright side, four more birds and I'm an ace.
I'm flying from a suburban drome where the hazards are deer, one very large and suicidal coyote, and flocks of geese. Letting the grass grow high makes the geese nervous and they split, but it would encourage the deer. The geese are a nightmare to encounter -- I know pilots that close their eyes and wait to be through the flock. They are not migrating as much because idiots feed them -- the geese, I mean, not the pilots.
I habitually touch down as slow as possible (remember the "v" is squared in the Kinetic Energy formula) and have yet to snag Bambi. Or even Mother Goose. But it's more luck than skill.
So they're gonna burn poor Yuki's home. My heart bleeds... maybe the environmentalists should move in. They all lay on the drama like they were Joan of Arc, let 'em make it happen.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
The other two are birdstrikes, but the "bird" the Baron in the top picture struck was a C-180. It's from the Antelope Valley, a pretty well known set of pics, online in many places.
http://www.skypark.org/BaronMidair/Midair.htm
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
I saw a Phantom that had a similar experience at one of the UK bases in about 1983. Lakenheath or Mildenhall. I thought he struck geese in formation. One FODded the port engine, one went through the port 3/4 windscreen and FODded the pilot, and one made a dent in the port leading edge that looked like a taxi mishap with a telegraph pole.
The backseater, who was not a rated pilot, unstowed and set up the stick and landed the plane. (the stick was removable in some marks of Phantom, the backseater operated BVR intercept radar, which had a stick of its own, and various precision-guided air-to-ground voodoo in those days). The pilot survived. The mishap investigation was still underway, but they thought they were going to scrap the plane when the investigators were done with it. When the compressor disk failed. it was only partially contained and the structure was full of holes.
Supposedly the CO tore the backseater a stripe for not command ejecting, but IIRC they were over water when the mishap occurred, and the guy was worried about the nonresponsive state of the pilot.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
FYI, that first pick of the Beech Baron was the result of a collision with a C180. Unfortunately, the C180 driver augered in.
Check post 26. That site says the opposite.
"That's why I like the little airports. And, the service is better"
They built it in a fog hole, exec is much better plus not being in the middle of nowhere.
Took off from JFK in a United 747 in 1976. A bird was ingested into the left engine and made such a thud and noise that I thought the plane would go down. Very scary, except the businessman sitting next to me hardly looked up from reading his newspaper. The pilots turned the engine off, we flew to Chicago, dumped fuel over the lake and landed safely. Because we were late to SFO, the airline put me up in a nice Hilton for the evening. Those were the good old days.
Some people think that putting human life at risk is a perfectly acceptable, in fact necessary, alternative to re-configuring abandoned agricultural land that has become habitate for wildlife.
"If the Beech Baron had been flying a few inches to the right, we likely wouldn't be wondering how Robert Hollis Gates, of Tehachapi, Calif., managed to land it safely after a midair with a Cessna 180 last Jan. 16. The Baron lost a section of fuselage, but Gates walked away with cuts and bruises. The 180 broke up in flight and the pilot, 40-year-old David Lazerson, a civilian test pilot instructor at Edwards Air Force Base and deputy director of the Joint Strike Fighter Integrated Test Force, was killed. According to the NTSB report, Gates said he was in cruise climb between 5,500 and 6,500 feet near Tehachapi when he saw the right gear leg of the Cessna coming at him from one o' clock. He ducked, then saw a dirt strip and managed to set the Baron down."
Sadly, Mr. Hollis was in the best position to 'see and avoid' and didn't. His Baron, in climb configuration, was most likely obcsured by the cowl of Mr. Lazerson's C180 and below the horizon line.
Let's keep our eye's out of the cockpit, folks.
I apologize - I thought it was a different article. I didn't read it.
Just find it interesting that the most dangerous birds out there are our fellow pilots. I've flown sailplanes and powered planes a lot in that area and it's a very target rich environment. Let's all watch out for each other out there, O.K?
What is needed right at this moment is that hurricane Katrina reporter to go: "Wooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
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