FG1D Birdstrike at Reading Airshow 3 June 2022

[bdk]

Just browsing through the FAA incident reports and noticed this. Doesn't sound too serious and no injuries (except to the bird presumably).

N9964Z

"Aircraft struck a bird during the air show damaging upper cowl flap, Reading PA."

[Lon Moer]

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2022/06/goodyear-fg-1d-corsair-n9964z-incidents.html

[TAdan]

I saw it on static display at the show on Sunday and didn't notice any visible damage.

[Chris Brame]

Will they add a kill mark?

[Hooligan2]

The bird probably made a forced landing with unfeathered props...

There was a remarkable pic some years ago of a British Sea Fury hitting a gull at a seaside airshow while doing several hundred knots. The bird seemed to have made it through the prop but hit the nose ring of the cowling, leaving a sizeable dent. The photo showed the bird disintegrating and the dinged ring was hanging up in The Fighter Collection's hangar afterwards, think they provided a spare to keep the RNHF owned aircraft flying.

[Matt Gunsch]

We had a bird strike in the T-6 on landing, we were on short final and a duck flew thru the prop, struck the cowl on the lower left side, then hit the leading edge of the center section just in board of the wing attach cover, went over the wing and impacted on the leading edge of the left horizontal. No damage to the 6, can't say the same for the duck, it was all over the 6.
Pete Regina's P-51B was being raced at reno when a turkey buzzard flew thru the prop and hit the left horizontal.

[ffuries]

When my dad was stationed at Zaragoza AB, Spain 72-75, they had a F-4 take a suspected bird strike to the windscreen. The crew declared an IFE and recovered back at the base with another aircraft flying on its wing all the way to touchdown.

Later they learned it was not a bird strike but a rabbit strike. Now how do you take a rabbit strike while airborne? The theory put forth was a bird of prey had snagged it, was spooked by the first F-4 in the flight, dropped it and the bunny and the trailing F-4 had a faithful meeting in the same patch of sky. What are the odds.....?

There were plenty of corny jokes, and someone painted a rabbit (Dont know if it was a silhouette, or a cartoon rabbit) on the splinter plate. For sometime the plane was unofficially nicknamed something along the lines of "Rabbit Wrecker" or "Bunny Basher".

Some of the jokes were....

How low do you need to fly to hit a rabbit?
How high can a rabbit jump?
And something about Spain having flying rabbits.....

There were more, but dang if I csn remember them, then again I was 5 to 8 years old then!

Last edited by ffuries on Sun Jun 12, 2022 3:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Waltz41]

He started out his demo, coming in from behind the crowd with a dive, smoke on. Apparently it happened then. Right after that, you could hear the engine sounding a bit different, and he basically came straight in to land. It took out the panel right on top of the cowling. They kept it over on the side the rest of Friday and worked on, fired it up for the night photo shoot and then it did fly on Sunday in the show.

[Dan K]

This Jug is static now in Evansville as Hoosier Spirit II.

But back in the '90s when Charlie Osborne owned it as Big Ass Bird II, does anyone else recall when it ate a seagull inbound to Oshkosh? They tied what was left of it to the port wing guns as proof of the kill!

Sadly, the one pic I had of it has been lost to the sands of time.

[Waltz41]

Just was looking through my photos, and found this one, which I super cropped. This was on landing right after the incident. Not great but you can see the panel lost at the top.

[marine air]

I’ve had several bird strikes in the jets. The scariest was a short low altitude op to Denton, Texas in a Citation II. Very hazy day and we hit a flock of birds with two birds hitting the two windshield panels simultaneously. Thankfully they weren’t large birds nd there wasn’t any damage.. Stain on each windshield.
Regardless of noise or size, it’s the aircraft’s speed that seems to determine the frequency of birds tries. Even in the Falcon 900, when we hit a bird, say after takeoff at takeoff power, you can hear a “ thunk” in the cockpit. Doesn’t matter if it’s on an engine nacelle or wingtip. In the smaller jets like the Citation 1, I’ve actually felt a slight shake when the bird strike occurs.

[Hooligan2]

Another pic I recall from a mag years ago was a US Navy T-44 which hit a turkey vulture with the tailplane - the bird's carcass cleaved its way through the leading edge as far as the spar and was dangling from it still largely intact when the aircraft landed. Beech King Airs and turkey vultures are tough birds!

[Zac Yates]

A Polikarpov I-153 had a birdstrike at Warbirds Over Wanaka 2000 - remnants of a duck were imbedded in the lower wing. The wing was sent to a restoration shop and repaired , temporary Nationalist Chinese markings were applied and a nice big duck kill marking appeared on the pilot's doors!
https://youtu.be/nFCfcP2uioA?t=2134

[JohnB]

On one of my first solo flights in the former H-13E (converted to Bell 47G), a large raptor of some sort took up a position to my left just above the rotor disc area. He stayed there for quite awhile.
I hoped he would drop out of the formation and stay away from the wooden blades.
I had no idea what kind of damage he might do and did not want to find out.

[Zac Yates]

Just to give a better idea of the Polikarpov incident, here's a page from the Warbirds Over Wanaka 2000 book:
Chaika meets duck by Zac Yates, on Flickr