Piper Going Turkey Buzzard Hunting…

[hammdo]

Happened to a friend of a friend in Graham TX…

Went between the Pilot and Co-Pilot. Didn’t hit either of them when it shot through the windshield

Damn things are big!

[Rick Junkin]

I had a friend in a sister squadron take one of those in the face at 480kts. He was in the back seat of a Strike Eagle. The bird came through the canopy over the pilot and hit the WSO full on in his visor/helmet and chest. He survived, and made it back on flight status about 6 months later as I recall. Your friend's friend was very fortunate!

[201er]

Neither a turkey nor a buzzard. Looks like a Black Vulture. And a costly repair.

[MikeOH]

In season? Or, is the PIC looking at Fish & Game fines?

[Hank]

Yep, it's a black vulture.

Still not a fun experience! Glad no people were injured. 

[hammdo]

Yep no red head…

[N201MKTurbo]

I wonder how old the windshield is. They get old and brittle after 40 years or so.

[EricJ]

Turkey vultures, raptors, geese, etc., etc...I don't want to hit any of them but they go up way higher than one might expect.   Freaking geese fly at night.

And around here the hang gliders fly cross-country up to 14k feet.    I don't want to hit one of them, either.

Or the halo guys that jump here day or night,  or the gliders that occassionally fly up into the flight levels.    Or balloons, or drones, or...

There's a lot of crap in the air as it turns out.

 

[Hank]

Ten or fifteen years ago, someone posted here that they hit a goose flying a night approach in IMC. When they landed, the goose was embedded in the vertical stabilizer . . .

[cliffy]

Saw a duck hit the windshield on a Lockheed 1011  on downwind (10K) at KATL one night at around 9PM.

I killed 20+ seagulls landing at night at Torrance CA  Didn't hurt the airplane-just the birds

Also killed a bunch of small birds just prior to touch down at SFO one afternoon Smelled yummy

in the 737 air conditioning. 

[Schllc]

One of those killed a friend of mines dad a few years ago in his twin Comanche. 
Always go up!

[Pinecone]

6 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I wonder how old the windshield is. They get old and brittle after 40 years or so.

I don't think it would matter.   They had to go to 1/2" polycarbonate (aka Lexan, aka bullet proof glass) on the T-37 to reduce the problem

[Pinecone]

Somewhere I have a video tape of a large buzzard like bird hitting the windshield of a T-34.  Glanced off the front seaters helmet and whacked the back seater in the chest.

[N201MKTurbo]

37 minutes ago, Pinecone said:

I don't think it would matter.   They had to go to 1/2" polycarbonate (aka Lexan, aka bullet proof glass) on the T-37 to reduce the problem

The T37 goes three times faster than a PA28. The force is square law increase.

[Pinecone]

Maybe twice.

But BIG difference between 3/16" acrylic and 1/2" polycarbonate.  Acrylic seems to be 17 times the impact resistance of glass.  Polycarbonate is 250 times that of glass or 14 times that of acrylic.  Then you have over doubled the thickness, so at least double the impact resistance, so 28 times.

But a GA windshield is not designed to handle impacts with large birds.  Small ones, yes.