Myth Busters and Bird Strikes

[dropdeded 0]

On the discovery channel tonight.
On now (west coast)

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The Dude Abides.
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[Amazon 7]

Saw it.. amazing how much damage a chicken can do

[labrys 0]

I was on a 727 that hit a turkey while landing on a runway in Texas. Quite a big bump.

Owned by Remi #?

[FunBobby 0]

So there's this pretty good story that gets retold over and over again at Whiting Field in Milton FL, where the Navy has 3 primary flight training squadrons. Years ago, from his perch in the rear seat of a T-34C trainer, a Marine Captain flight instructor is doing his best to berate a young Navy Ensign in flight training. A huge buzzard hits the aircraft and goes right through the prop (somewhat intact but starting to come apart) and the front windscreen. The student sees it just before impact and ducks (no pun intended) almost quickly enough to avoid being hit - almost. The remnants of the bird, still a very large mass, but less recognizable as a bird and more as a huge pile of bloody, feathery flesh, smacks him in the head and knocks him unconscious; the students slumps forward. The bird - okay, bloody, disgusting mass of bird flesh, still travelling aft at maybe 150 knots or so, strikes the Marine Captain in the face, knocking him silly, but not unconscious. The instructor realizes they've hit something but doesn't know what, because the impact of the bird has temporarily partially blinded him. The instructor keys the ICS and yells at his student to make sure he's okay and that he's still got control of the plane. No response. He tries again. No response again. And oh, there's an unfamiliar and very strong airblast in the cockpit now. The instructor grabs the control stick, hoping to just keep the plane upright for now with what little vision he has left. The stick doesn't budge because the student up front is slumped far forward enough to jam the controls. The instructor tries again to raise the student on the ICS with no success; he's not even sure if the student is alive. The blood and guts all around him lead him to believe that the student is either dead or halfway to being there. Deciding that the aircraft is uncontrollable, the instructor actuates the canopy emergency opening system and bails out.

The student, moments later, comes to, and after his initial fit of panic as he realizes he is alone in the airplane (and he hasn't been certified "Safe for Solo" yet!) he gathers his wits and safely lands the stricken aircraft at home field. Hero!

Instructor - goat!

There's a priceless commercial waiting to be written about that one.


FunBobby

P.S. A great story - a true one, too. I met the instructor. Years later, he was the C.O. of the squadron in which I completed my primary flight training, the "Red Knights" of VT-3.

[Guest]

Quote

Saw it.. amazing how much damage a chicken can do

Did they thaw it first?

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

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Saw it.. amazing how much damage a chicken can do

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Did they thaw it first?
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They did it frozen AND thawed
Them boys sure got a fun job.

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The Dude Abides.
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[ifics 0]

There was a mythbusters on the other day where the guy without the crazy french hat thing goes skydiving. They were testing the "penny thrown from the Empire Sate Building killing people" theory. He went up tandem with a handful of pennies and let them go in freefall, I didn't expect to see that and I was pleasantly surprised.

[freeflir29 0]

Missed the show (No cable here) but I have certainly fixed my share of bird strikes. B-52's were particularly bad because the leading edge near the wing root is so wide. We had one hole so big that you could fit your head and shoulders in it. One of the small guys in the shop could climb inside the wing. Another that went through a B-52 radome, through some avionics boxes, through the fire wall, and ended up splatter around the right seaters feet. Then there was the one that started an investigation. Several of the Nacelle leading edges had multiple dents. No holes....but lots of dents that were "Out of limits." Looked like sparrows to me. The bad part....each ring nacelle is about $80,000 and they CAN'T be taken apart to fix the damage at the "field" level. Basically they were garbage now. Some of the higher ups wanted to know why and where that plane had been flying so low as to hit flocks of sparrows.

[skyedivr 0]

better get those chicken coupes away from the airport and quick!

and the planes have to watch out for those high flying herds of chickens moving east also.

my power is beyond your understanding.