Now thats a Bird Strike !

The faster you are going, the more damage they do. A 48 TFW F-111D after an encounter with a Sandhill Crane or Turkey Vulture at low level and 540 KTAS. I forget which one this was. There were quite a few bird-strikes in the olden days. In the early F-111 days before the bird proof canopies, a couple made it inside.


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Turkey vultures are no joke. Someone I know was on climb out in a DA40 in Franklin VA and hit a turkey vulture at about 80kts. Made a mess of that airplane. Composite repairs are not cheap!

 

Some old photos of a T-44.
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That looks like a cartoon or something!

 

Birds collide with National Guard jet

April 9, 1982









MOUNTAIN HOME, Idaho -- A flock of birds collided with a speeding National Guard jet Thursday night and injured the pilot, but a quick-thinking weapons officer with no flying experience safely landed the plane, officials said.

The RF-RC reconnaissance fighter was cruising at 550 mph about 1,000 feet above the southern Idaho desert west of Boise when a 'bird strike' blasted a hole in the canopy, crumpling it and striking the shoulder of Capt. Gregory Engelbreit, the pilot, said National Guard Col. Robert Corbell in Boise.



Lt. Fred Wilson, the weapons officer sitting in the rear seat, grabbed control of the jet, radioed for help and touched the plane down about 30 minutes later at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Corbell said.

'He landed that plane under very, very severe conditions,' Corbell said of Wilson's performance. 'With no canopy, there's an awful lot of wind blowing in there.

'It's a very unusual feat,' said Corbell, head of the Idaho Air National Guard's 124th Tactical Reconnassaince Group.

The collision happened about 7:45 p.m. MST and the jet -- which wasn't mechanically damaged -- touched down at 8:14 p.m., said Lt. Philip McCarthy, an Air Force spokesman at Mountain Home.

Wilson was not injured, but Engelbreit, a Hewlett-Packard employee when not flying for the National Guard, appeared to have suffered multiple fractures in his left shoulder, according to Corbell.

Engelbreit was taken to St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise via helicopter. His condition at the hospital was not known immediately, but McCarthy said the pilot's condition had stabilized when the helicopter left the base.

Five other guard jets -- reconnaissance modifications of the F-4 fighter -- were in the same area when the incident occurred and responded to Wilson's emergency calls, Corbell said.

One of the other planes flew in formation with the crippled craft into the Air Force base, which was made ready for an emergency landing.

But Wilson was able to coax the jet in without incident, McCarthy said.

Corbell said Wilson made the landing without incident.

Wilson has flown many times as a weapons officer, but he had no experience on flying a military plane, according to Corbell.

Corbell said the jet was traveling at about 550 miles per hour some 1,000 feet above the southern Idaho desert when the birds collided with the aircraft.

Five other of the RF-4C planes, reconnassiance versions of the F-4 fighter, were in the same area and responded to Wilson's emergency calls, Corbell said. One of the other planes flew in formation with the crippled craft into the Air Force Base, which was made ready for an emergency landing.

But Wilson, an employee of a pump service in Boise, was able to coax the jet in without incident, said Lt. Philip McCarthy, a base spokesman.

'With no canopy, there's an awful lot of wind blowing in there. It's a very unusual feat, and one that one in very, very many people could have accomplished,' Corbell said of Wilson's performance.

'He landed that plane under very, very severe conditions.'

Corbell said Wilson needed no extra passes over the Mountain Home field to land the jet.

'We got him all set up and he just flew on the lead of another airplane in formation straight to touchdown,' Corbell.

The birds struck the left front section of the canopy, caving it in on Engelbreit and damaging the front part of the cockpit, Corbell said. The essential functions of the plane apparently weren't affected, he said.

The pilot was extraciated from the plane and put on a helicopter to be flown to the Boise hospital for emergency treatment, according to McCarthy. The base spokesman said the pilot suffered severe shoulder injuries, but added, 'his condition is stable.'

The accident occurred in complete darkness and officials had not way of knowing the size of the flock of birds, Corbell said. The plane and the birds' remains were to be inspected Friday, he said.

Corbell said it there was no doubt the plane was struck by anything other than birds, since low-flying planes often encounter birds.

 

Nobody hurt, but here's another million bucks we're putting out, thanks to our fine feathered friends...

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2018/04/24/bird-flies-into-jet-engine-during-blue-angels-air-show-causing-1-million-in-damages/

 

OK, what is an RF-RC aircraft???? even Wiki doesn't know.

 

Lousy editing. RF-4C later in article.

RF = Roger Federer, GOAT Tennis Player, innit?

"I am weak-ish on snatch" ~ joker57676

 

Correction

RF-4C

 

A WSO with no flying experience? What a joke. We flew the aircraft from the very start of training so that if anything did happen to the AC, you could bring it home.

 

I hit one with my 308 at about 2' AGL. Paint-less dent repair guy did a great job fixing me up.

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