Bird strikes not that rare (1 Viewer)

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The news media stupidity is apparent as bird strike prevention programs have been in place for years - just more news sensationalism and a open door for passengers to sue airlines for not preventing birdstrikes.
 
Its the darn stealth materials his sleigh is built of, that and the tin-foil-hat conspiracy theories trying to make people think he doesn't exist (an obvious CIA ploy). Birds are too smart to fly into airplanes, its gotta be those reindeer! Santa hates us.
 
I have probably flown into several hundred birds while during my time in the service:
 

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Hi Adler,

>I have probably flown into several hundred birds while during my time in the service

No kidding?! I thought it was a much rarer occurence than that. Of course, I don't know how many decades you served :)

Here is a photograph to show that birds have to fear bird-strike, too ... ;)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
 

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Hi Adler,

>I have probably flown into several hundred birds while during my time in the service

No kidding?! I thought it was a much rarer occurence than that. Of course, I don't know how many decades you served :)

Here is a photograph to show that birds have to fear bird-strike, too ... ;)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

At altitude it is probably not that common but on take off and landings and flying very low to the ground it is.

We would fly 50ft or less over the ground, that would startle the birds and make them take off and we would fly right into a flock of them. Most however were very small birds and they would just glance off the aircraft. A lot of times we would injest them into the engines, and because they were so small we would not even notice it.
 
I used to do bird control in my early days , new propane tanks for the noise cannons a side by side 10 guage with a box of shells and drive up and down the rwy. The deer also used to sleep under the VASIS because of the heat
 
Hi Adler,

>We would fly 50ft or less over the ground, that would startle the birds and make them take off and we would fly right into a flock of them. Most however were very small birds and they would just glance off the aircraft.

Ah, makes sense, thanks.

As a hobby ornithologist, I'm slightly shocked to hear about bird strikes being so frequent, but on the other hand, it's put into perspective by an article I recently found in a ornithologist magazine that mentioned that (according to a rule of thumb) you have one bird strike per house per year - and there sure are a lot more houses than helicopters in Germany ...

Interestingly, after the Hudson River Ditching, it was suggested to give aircraft a special ultraviolet spectrum warning pattern to scare off birds (who can see in the ultraviolet range).

The abovementioned article suggested the same concept for "bird-friendly" windows as the birds would not attempt fly through a "net" of lines on a window pane, even if these lines were only visible in the UV range.

I suppose UV "scarecrow" paint jobs would not be an option for military aircraft that have to try to hide themselves from enemy sensors of all kinds ... though I'm not sure if UV has found application yet.

(Well, It seems to have in missile approach warning systems, but that's an entirely different application.)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
 

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