AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2025 - 20

FLYING LIFE
Bird strikes
Control the controllables
BY NATALIE BINGHAM HOOVER
ONE MARCH EVENING, several years ago, around the start of spring
migration season, the FAA Safety Team was at my airport giving
a presentation on bird strike mitigation. Thirty or so people had
their cookies and coffee in hand as we all sat in the lobby right
off the flight ramp. Halfway through the presentation, the door
opened, and in walked one of our flight instructors with his shellshocked,
five-foot-tall student, who looked like he had seen a
ghost. I mention his height for a reason; stay with me here. The
instructor and student had been out practicing night landings
when a blue heron came through the front windscreen. Forgive
me if you are eating your dinner while you read this, but I just want
you to " see " what I saw that night. There was a jagged, bloody,
feathered, 18-inch long hole in the windscreen. The trail of gore
indicated that the heron next struck the top right corner of the
pilot's seat and headrest. The bird's long bluish-white neck sat at
an odd angle in the back cargo compartment when I peered over
the backseat to get a look.
Back inside the building, people were rattled. " Wow, that looks
terrifying. " " A taller man would have been killed. " And the thing
that everyone was thinking, but no one was saying...there was
absolutely nothing those pilots could have done to prevent the
bird strike. They were landing on a dark night and couldn't see the
bird before it was too late. And if there was nothing that could be
done, then what in the world were we all doing there pretending
we had some control over the outcome? This sort of a realization
is a hard pill for most of us to swallow, especially a room full of
pilots. No one likes to feel helpless in an airplane.
Well, according to the rest of the seminar, there are a few things
that you can do to prevent bird strikes. For example, if you see a
flock of birds, maneuver in a different direction if there's enough
time. Birds tend to dive when approaching an obstacle, so take
heart in the fact that they will likely also be moving to avoid you.
If you are close to the ground, however, your get-out-of-the-waymaneuvering
should be kept to a minimum. It would be unwise to
fly like an aerobatic pilot, pulling up aggressively when you see a
random bird approaching, especially in the traffic pattern. I'll take
a bird strike over a low-altitude stall any day.
Also, do not fly at low altitudes over wildlife refuges or marshland.
According to the FAA's website, 90 percent of bird strikes
happen under 3,000 feet agl. So, cruising at higher altitudes should
20
AOPA PILOT / March 2025
reduce much of the risk. Not all of it though. Bird strikes have
occurred at 37,000 feet according to an AOPA subject report.
Luckily your chances of a bird strike that results in a fatality (for
the human, the birds don't fare so well) are infinitesimally small.
In the past 30 years, fewer than 500 fatalities have occurred as a
result of wildlife strikes globally for military and civil aviation,
according to the FAA. Do you know how many people get in an
airplane every year? Billions.
There are also some things we can do to give ourselves the
best possible outcome should a bird strike occur. Here's how
an instructor friend handled it: He was out practicing ground
reference maneuvers with a student in a Cessna 172 when they
noticed a flock of birds too close for comfort. The flock veered
off, but one straggler collided with the aircraft wing in what
felt like a " car crash " according to the CFI, with a loud bang
followed by a sudden hard yaw to the left. After they regained
control and visually verified no fuel was leaking from the dented
wing, they made the decision to fly back to Olive Branch Airport
(OLV), where the nearest paved runway awaited. They carried
extra right rudder to keep the airplane straight and landed
with no flaps and extra airspeed (in case their new wing design
came with increased stall speed). I was proud of the way they
handled the incident, calmly flying their airplane and making
wise adjustments on approach and landing.
So, for all of you pilots out there whose heart starts to race
when you realize you are sharing the sky with an unpredictable
feathered missile, remember that you do have some control,
small though it may be. Just ask the most famous bird strike
survivor ever, Captain Chesley " Sully " Sullenberger. " Flight 1549
had shown people that there are always further actions you can
take. There are ways out of the tightest spots " (Sully: The Untold
Story Behind the Miracle on the Hudson). No, we can't protect
ourselves completely, but
we can do lots of little
things to help. Thank
you, aviation, for teaching
us yet another life lesson:
Control the controllables,
and let the rest go.
myaviation101.com
NATALIE BINGHAM HOOVER
began flying in 2004. After
corporate and airline work,
she now serves as an FAAdesignated
examiner and chief
flight instructor of a flight
school in Mississippi.
http://www.myaviation101.com
AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2025
