Bird Strike

Fratton Fred

How common is a bird strike?

Whilst waiting to take off this morning, apparantly a plane ahead of us had a bird strike on take off. We were waiting for quite a while as the plane landed and the runway was inspected.

Is this common and why inspect the runway, do they just look for bits of bird/plane?

no news on the bird i'm afraid, I presume he's a gonna!

seamus

From what I've heard, the blades inside an engine are relatively weak, so coupled with a solid object hitting them at 300+ kph, they get fairly badly mangled in a bird strike. I would imagine that the runway needs to be checked for debris. Even a smallish shard of metal has the potential to puncture and cause a disaster. Think concorde.

Steyr

FF seeing as your a frequent flyer i think i speak for everybody in A&A when i say..........bring a camera with you and take photo's for us!!!!!:pac:

Fratton Fred

Steyr wrote: »

FF seeing as your a frequent flyer i think i speak for everybody in A&A when i say..........bring a camera with you and take photo's for us!!!!!:pac:

I'm usually on a flight at about 6:30ish on a mondau morning. all I'm worried about is getting off the ground so they can get me my breakfast. I thought for a minute this morning the delay was caused by the load rumbling noise coming from seat 7c:o!!

I usually fly into either Heathrow or Stansted and tbh, there's not usually anything at Stansted other than a whole load of Ryanair 737s. Heathrow is usually a bit more interesting though. I'l try and remember my box brownie next week!:D

therecklessone

seamus wrote: »

From what I've heard, the blades inside an engine are relatively weak, so coupled with a solid object hitting them at 300+ kph, they get fairly badly mangled in a bird strike. I would imagine that the runway needs to be checked for debris. Even a smallish shard of metal has the potential to puncture and cause a disaster. Think concorde.

Think less technical than that, a bird carcass on the runway could be ingested into the engine of a subsequent departure.

vulcan57

therecklessone wrote: »

Think less technical than that, a bird carcass on the runway could be ingested into the engine of a subsequent departure.

Also, it is carrion and attracts even more wild life, crows, foxes, etc. That in turn is also a danger.

FOGOFUNK

Found the leg of an eagle in the air intake of an APU last week. Fairly sick.

Mythago

FOGOFUNK wrote: »

Found the leg of an eagle in the air intake of an APU last week. Fairly sick.

Once had to remove a Stork (or at least we were assured it was) that got caught up in the gear. Was wedged right up on top were the gear door hinges. 34C outside and the smell was vile!

But birdstrikes are relatively common. Aegean Airways can't seem to take-off or land without half a dozen bird bouncing off the leading edges!

FlutterinBantam

Pelicans???

heavy bastids, can cause a lot of damáiste.

peter1892

I grew up near DUB (in a place where there was a bit of an 'Uproar' over the new runway).

Anyway I'm pretty used to aircraft noise & the like but one day about 6 years ago I heard a louder than usual noise & saw a 737-200 flying lower than usual over the area. Turns out that it hit some racing pigeons on takeoff & had to make a quick return to the airport as one engine had to be shut down as a result. IIRC it departed from 10 and came back in to land on 16.

FOGOFUNK

Haha, mother nature, when will she learn.

Fratton Fred

FOGOFUNK wrote: »

Haha, mother nature, when will she learn.

when she's been sucked through an engine and turned into 50,000 small pieces I guess

Fratton Fred

peter1892 wrote: »

I grew up near DUB (in a place where there was a bit of an 'Uproar' over the new runway).

Anyway I'm pretty used to aircraft noise & the like but one day about 6 years ago I heard a louder than usual noise & saw a 737-200 flying lower than usual over the area. Turns out that it hit some racing pigeons on takeoff & had to make a quick return to the airport as one engine had to be shut down as a result. IIRC it departed from 10 and came back in to land on 16.

You'd have to be pretty pissed off if you released your flight of pedigree racing pigeons and watched them all get hoovered up by the 7:45 to Stansted

Celtic Mech

seamus wrote: »

From what I've heard, the blades inside an engine are relatively weak, so coupled with a solid object hitting them at 300+ kph, they get fairly badly mangled in a bird strike.

A/C birdstrikes are common enough, but not usually around 300+kph! The most common time is during take off and approach. Engine Fan blades are anything but weak. During engine certification process, engines have to withstand birdstrike tests. Im sure if you google this you will get some videos on it.
I have inspected a few engines after birdstrikes and the engine would have suffered very little damage. The carcas can either beinjested thru the bypass of the engine or through the core of it...this leading to a boroscope inspection more than likely

Foggy43

Yes! Bird strikes are very common. The worst I was involved in was when a goose decided to take on a BA 747-100. It's a few years ago now but a BA 747-100 on the 1830 LHR JFK was on its take off run on 27R. The Captain told me that they did see the flock of geese cross up ahead but nothing to worry about. They will be clear off each other. Unfortunatley one of the geese has different ideas and decided to leave the formation turn back and go for the 747.

The crew watched as the goose approached from the right went under the aircraft and then 'bang'. All engine 2 indication on the pilots and flight engineers panels went to zero. Still enough runway to abort take off. Aborted successfully and returned to stand. I was one of the gang sent to assess the damage. The engine surged blowing the intake and exhaust section off completly. The fan blades were damaged. Also flap damage. It was a case off 'One JT9D engine please'.

The aircraft had to go to the hanger or an engine change ang repairs. If the geese had waited a few minutes longer that goose could have had a go at BA3. Concorde, LHR JFK.

Steyr

Celtic Mech wrote: »

During engine certification process, engines have to withstand birdstrike tests. Im sure if you google this you will get some videos on it.

Yes ive seen this on a programme about the A380, they fired frozen birds right into the engine:D

Mythago

Foggy43 wrote: »

Yes! Bird strikes are very common. The worst I was involved in was when a goose decided to take on a BA 747-100. It's a few years ago now but a BA 747-100 on the 1830 LHR JFK was on its take off run on 27R. The Captain told me that they did see the flock of geese cross up ahead but nothing to worry about. They will be clear off each other. Unfortunatley one of the geese has different ideas and decided to leave the formation turn back and go for the 747.

The crew watched as the goose approached from the right went under the aircraft and then 'bang'. All engine 2 indication on the pilots and flight engineers panels went to zero. Still enough runway to abort take off. Aborted successfully and returned to stand. I was one of the gang sent to assess the damage. The engine surged blowing the intake and exhaust section off completly. The fan blades were damaged. Also flap damage. It was a case off 'One JT9D engine please'.

The aircraft had to go to the hanger or an engine change ang repairs. If the geese had waited a few minutes longer that goose could have had a go at BA3. Concorde, LHR JFK.

Did a Q400 course recently and the instructor was involved in the clean-up after multiple bird strikes when the aircraft was on approach into Oregon somewhere.Pilot was injured as he was hit in the face & F/O landed using standby instruments. Passengers were blissfully unaware until the Pilot was stretchered off..........

Here's the good side:


And the forward accessory bay:


Although, just noticed that the first pic isn't a Q400 (probably a CRJ)..... That lying Bastid!!!!! Nice pics though

Celtic Mech

Capt's Window Checked serviceable iaw mm 56-10-00 LOL!!!! ;-)

N2

will I put that in the tech log.....:)