Sad Day for UND...

[airtac]

HMM--been flying airplanes at night for a long time and have never seen birds so I checked the web after reading your letter and by golly, you are exactly right

My point is that you will NEVER see them at night!  I didn't.  I was flying along happy as pig in $h1t, when BAM!!!  The whole airplane shuddered and yawed, then it started feeling funny.  I never had any warning, never saw a thing, nothing.

I'll look through my desktop this evening and see if I can find the pics I took of the leading edge of the wing.  It didn't look too bad, but the leading edge was bashed in all the way to the forward spar along a 3 foot section or so which left a flat plate along my leading edge of about 8 inches thickness!

If you fly with your landing lights on at night you'll never know whether you have saved yer butt or not, but I figure its cheap insurance.

I got your point,  |:)\and my point was, that in several thousand hours of night flight, it was only my astounding ignorance of migrating bird habits that kept me from worrying

[TheSoccerMom]

The worst birdstrike I ever got was at night -- we had on recognition lights and strobes, etc., but not landing lights.  The entire windshield was sagged inward and luckily the laminate layer held it there as we descended out of 17,500 MSL.  Made it to the airport okay but it was just luck it didn't blow completely out, which would have been some fun at night in a King Air.  As it was, it was a weird situation to land, since everything was refracted into a million prisms of sparkly light, and we we trying like hell to use as much side vision as possible to figure out where the hell we were.   

The conclusion was it was a duck, as we figured a heavy goose would have just come right on through and nailed us.

It made for a short night at work and another, more original, excuse to head for the bar.   

 

[PiperGirl]

Don't they test some of the bigger airplane windscreens by shooting frozen chickens/turkeys at them?

[Franz]

I've read something along those lines, too.
But I think they normally don't use frozen ones. There are stories which suggest that during such tests all windscreens were penetrated until they tried thawing the birds .  . .

[undatc]

My roommate is a CFI right now at UND and the NTSB came in and briefed all of the flight staff on exactly what they think happened.  They extracted the last 5 min or so of data from the flight director and from that, as well as DNA on the surface of the place come to the following conclusion.

The aircraft was straight and level, the initial strike was on the nose, when in turn caused the airplane to pitch downwards.  In turn that pushed the tail up, which then hit the next bird.  because of the angle of the now bent tail, it caused the plane to pitch up and also roll over onto its back and pitch downward straight into the swamp.  Estimated time from first strike to impact: 6 seconds.

They told them that the force of hitting a 15lb Canada goose at 151 TAS was equal to dropping a 10,000 lb weight from 10 feet in the air.  There was literally nothing they could have done.

[airtac]

SHOOTING FROZEN CHICKENS AT A WINDSHIELD!!
I think someone better take Chuck out for a drink--he may never be the same if he reads that!

[Oddball]

us brits done it first  but it was the U.S.A.F who had the bright idea of firing frozen chickens at canopies but for some reason they kept on shattering until some bright spark had the brain wave of defrosting them first (HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE i have seen the evidence at college)

[Baradium]

Sounds they really never even had a clue what was happening.  At least it was fast.

us brits done it first  but it was the U.S.A.F who had the bright idea of firing frozen chickens at canopies but for some reason they kept on shattering until some bright spark had the brain wave of defrosting them first (HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE i have seen the evidence at college)

You know, all the accounts *I've* read were that y'all were running to NASA after you borrowed NASA's bird cannon and all your windshields were being penetrated.   

[Oddball]

thats what you are led to belive but i have seen the tapes from the good ole USAF  and stories from some retired R.A.F bods

[airtac]

Yeah, the USAF is such third rate military organization, and they fly such technically inferior aircraft too 

[G-man]

thats what you are led to belive but i have seen the tapes from the good ole USAF  and stories from some retired R.A.F bods

Ahhh--You are young and have a lot to learn Oddball. There is a reason that more Scots live OUTSIDE of Scotland than live there.. Give it a few years and you will understand..

[Rooster Cruiser]

I had long since given up on finding this pic.  Just came across it while searching for an unrelated item.  This happened back October of 2003, so its been a while.  Still gives me the willies.

[Oddball]

thas nasty. 

[Ragwing]

Don't they test some of the bigger airplane windscreens by shooting frozen chickens/turkeys at them?

You test the windscreens with fresh chickens (with the chicken gun).
During the development of the 757/767 the windscreens held up fine.  Then somebody missed and the bird struck above the windscreen penetrating the aluminum structure and making a mess.  Needless to say, the skin above the windscreen was re-designed.

[chuckar101]

A cessna up in sacramento hit a turkey vulture about a month ago.  Went clean thru the right side of the windshield and into the backseat.  Cut the pilot on the right arm but there was blood and feathers everywhere in the cockpit.  Looked nasty.  Pilot got down alright though.  Was pretty shaken up though