On completion of the run-ups we requested taxi clearance and started entering the runway. As part of the line-up checks, the runway was not clear, as the birds were still obstructing the runway. So we decided to call up tower and they sent the rescue car to fire blanks to scare the birds away. But as we got close to the end of the runway the birds flew away and therefore we didn’t need the rescue car anymore. Once lined up on the runway I had another look around the airfield and could see few smaller birds still lingering around but since they weren’t on the runway, it wasn’t of much concern.

I was cleared for take-off and soon I started rolling down the runway. Everything was normal after rotation until I reached approximately 50 feet when the instructor suddenly noticed that we had hit a bird. The bird struck on the left-hand propeller and it was instantly turned into small pieces of meat. We could see small amounts of blood and feathers clinging onto the fuselage and windshield. I tried not to panic and continued flying the plane. After leaning up the aircraft and going through the after take-off checklist we decided to turn around and land back at Palmerston. This was the safest thing to do as we did not know the damage that was caused by the strike. We landed safely back at the airfield and rest of the flight was terminated.

Lesson learnt:
During the post flight inspection we could clearly see that the left-hand elevator, wing and engine cowling had blood and other bird remains on it. The engine nacelle was clear and there was no visible blockage due to the strike.
In situations like these it is very important to continue to fly the aircraft first before trying to fix the problem. There have been many situations in the past where pilots got distracted while fixing the small problem onboard and totally forgot to fly the aircraft eventually leading to a crash. This is critical especially during take-off and landing phases of flight when the aircraft is closer to the ground and there are fewer margins for error. Landing back at the aerodrome was the safest option because we did not know the damage the bird had caused. We did realise that we had struck a much small bird than expected because I was still able to fly the aircraft in control and engines were still running. Striking a larger bird such as the ones that were on the runway would have easily caused the left engine to fail which in end would have led to a major incident.

On second thought, it would have been wise to get the rescue car to scare the birds away even after the birds on the runway had flown off. This might have prevented the bird strike. Communication in the cockpit was very good as I continued to fly the aircraft and the instructor looked after comms. Decision to land immediately was made mutually and not solely based on instructor.

I can say this incident had thought me very valuable lesson on how to deal with emergency and how important it is to stay calm in intense situations and give importance to flying the aircraft.

A little background about my school; it is funded by the govenment to produce aviators for my country, and because training is free, the drop rate is extremely high to ensure that only the best grduate from the programme. Although the school had since moved, the old premises was located in an 'Open' airfield, this meant that the acess to the air strip was unrestricted. It was common to see dogs and cas sleeping under the shade of the plane's wings.

On this occasion, my batchboy was doing his pre first solo check, and as this was his first check, he was naturally nervous. The flight went without incident, and as the student turned for a full stop final, to allow the instructor to exit before commencing his first solo, he noticed a dog on the threshold. The student then made the wrong decidion to overfly the dog and land. the dog noticed the approaching plane and tried to outrun the aircraft by running down the runway. Surprisingly, his instructor also did not notice the dog until then. The instructor kicked the left rudder and the plane touched down safely along side the panicked canine which scampered away.

The student failed his course because of the bad decision and never went solo.

Lesson: Safety is the bread and butter of aviation. The student was over stressed during the assessment that he made the wrong decision to land instead of going around, placing the aircraft and all on board in danger.

Today, the student has learnt his lesson and is the top of his cohort in his new flight training centre.

This incident occured mid 08 when the said instructor was on a dual with a student for a CPL handling check. As per normal, constant lookout for the 'wooly beasts' had to begin even before engine startup because the sheep had a tendecy to wander onto the taxiways and even apron as and when they liked.

As the student pilot was taxing on the eastern taxiway for runway 28, he encountered some lazy sheep close to the taxiway and our standard practice was to either slow down or stop dead and rev up the throttle to warn the silly animals.

So at this instance, when the student pilot was throttling up to get the sheep a safe distance away, he notice one of the sheep approaching the aircraft and it didnt appear like it was going to stop. For fear of a prop-strike and for the safety of the poor animal and themselves of course, my instructor told me he instantly power back and pulled out mixture to ICO(idle cut out).

Even when the props finally came to a complete stop, the suicidal sheep continued heading towards the undercarriage of the aircraft. For fear of the safety of the aircraft and animal (and probably himself), the student pilot removed harness and hatch and step outside. To his shock, there was a lamb resting on its sides right between the main wheels. The sheep was now baa-ing very loudly at the student pilot probably thinking that he was going to hurt the lamb. Eventually the instructor decided to get out of his seat and together they pushed the aircraft forward and the lamb scurried away off the taxiway with what we assumed was probably its 'mother'.

When he related this story to my class of student pilots, we were very amused yet we wondered if such things could happen to a PIC that is relatively experienced, what if the pilot was a freshie on his first solo.

Lesson Learnt:

I actually brought up this matter with the CFI to get the area fenced up but apparently I was told that it was not safe (?) and it wasnt very economical.

Another solution would be to have more 'cattle stops' in the area to direct the grazing sheep away from the active taxiways.

Also, Civil Aviation Authorities should conduct regular inspections of unregistered aerodromes and set strict regulations to prevent such incidents. I was told by some of the senior instructors that incidents with cattle is not entirely uncommon in uncontrolled aerodromes in New Zealand.

John* is a trainee pilot who was schduled for a 3 hour Nav flight. Such a sortie is well sought after as the booking for a 3 hour nav flight was not only difficult but to coincide it with the appropriate season, timeslot and weather made getting the perfect slot almost impossible. The sortie commenced without incident , the preflight and subsequent taxi checks indicated that all was in order. there was also no birds in visual.

The aircraft took-off, however at about 700ft upwind, John heard a loud thud which seemed to come in all directions. His first impression was that the aircraft engine had backfired. He carried out the necessary checks and determined that the incident was a one-off and the engine was operating normally. John decided that since the thud was not persistent, the flight was a difficult one to obtain and that the weather was perfect, there was no need to land and waste the fight. he continued the nav flight as planned.

During the duration of the flight, John noticed that the aircraft was not stable; the ball in the TC was difficult to centre, it was impossible to trim the aircraft, and that the aircraft had difficulty maintaining airspeed. John ignored these signs as he was told by his peers that the particular aircraft he was flying was not properly balanced, and trim was difficult. Overall, he presumed that this was the "normal" performance of the aircraft. John continued to struggle at the controls for the next 3 hous.

it was only upon landing that John noticed a large dent with blood splatter on the starboard wing. On hindsight, he realised that this had compromised the aerodynamics of the plane.

In my opinion, as a pilot we must not be consumed by mission blindness. We cannot be so focused on the completion of the mission that safety takes a back seat. Everyone has learnt that a much larger and serious problem may underlie the smallest dent or the faintest sound and smell. and even though we are armed with the various annunciator lights, they still do not warn us of every foult in the aircraft. On hindsight, John should have exercised good airmanship and landed the aircraft to do a physical check, even if it meant a delay.

In aviation, safety always preceeds the mission.

Prior to this, I noticed that there have a been an alarming increase in the bird population around the runway within the past couple of weeks.
Curiously I asked my instructor and he said that it was pretty normal for sparrows to start nesting around that time and it must have been some animal behavior (that is truly inconceivable to me) why these birds choose grass spots and trees near operational areas (runways, taxiways).

So as i was rolling towards the end of the runway, a small flock of sparrows came out of a grassy spot along the left hand side of Runway 28 and flew right towards my windscreen. Now, I haven't had any training on what to do in such a situation so I instinctively jammed the brakes (apparently there isn't a SOP for bird attacks).

One of the sparrows flew right between the rotating props while another hit my left wing. I was flying a Cessna 152 hence it was significantly visible to me that the poor creature had struck the leading edge of the wing close to the pitot tube. After the flight my instructor and I did a thorough examination of the aircraft and found no visible damage to the propellers but the leading edge of the left wing had a minor dent. No blood or feathers were found. The aircraft was then passed to maintenance for further inspection.

The aerodrome was uncontrolled and the runway in use was not certified. Hence any information on bird strike incidents prior to this was simply circulated via word of mouth. I feel that frequent runway area inspections should take place even for non-certified runways and the responsibility of this job lies on the shoulders on the aerodrome operator. Also, if there has been a significant increase in bird strike incidents in an area or aerodrome, word of caution should be formally disseminated in the form of NOTAM's or AC's.

That was happened in 2000. I had made five circuits during a solo consolidation session on a Cherokee 140 at West Melton aerodrome. On my sixth approach, I was attempting to land when a bird started to charge the aircraft. It was on the short final for Runway 02, I applied full power to go around.

I wasn’t sure if the bird had hit the aircraft. I made a full stop after this incidence, and did a pre-flight check, trying to look for feathers or blood stains on the airframe and propeller. Nothing was found.

During a dual low flying exercise pre-PPL with a somewhat more relaxed instructor than I had previously had, we were practicing precautionary landings in a low flying area down to approximately 20ft. This was all fine and I felt I was reasonably proficient at reversal turns and coastal reversals and the entire precationary landing technique. My instructor asked for control and asked if I wanted to have some fun, I felt he was one of the most skilled pilots I had flown with so of course I said yes. I sat back while he flew the plane very low level for about 5 minutes and then we started climbing out when 2 or 3 birds came out of nowhere, he tried to miss them but one hit the very end of our right wing with a huge bang. He said there was probably no dent and we carried on our flight climbing to 3000 feet and conducting another 2 forced landings and returing to base. On the ground I did a post flight walk around and didnt see the dent in the wing, but my instructor did, the dent was easily two hands wide and fairly deep. He wrote up a report and a week later the insurance company rang me asking for my version of the events, anyway everything worked out but this incident highlights three important lessons:

• Low flying should never be carried out in proximity to birds or any groundbourne vehicles, people, kites etc.
• If a birdstrike is suspected you must land at the nearest aerodrome immediately
• A thourough post flight walk around should always be carried out

Birds do pose a major hazard to all types of aircraft and should not be taken lightly see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19Oub-EZVDs

A course-mate of mine and I were practising circuits at Palmerston North. I was front-seating him as i was bored and hadn't flown for a very long time. It was in the late afternoon and we the only aircraft in the circuit. Everything was fine and we had done about 7 touch and gos. While we were on downwind, tower informed us that there were a flock of birds around the threshold and that we might need to go around. We acknowledged and continued on with our approach. Established on final, we could see about 10 - 15 birds flying in formation close to the threshold. We continued our approach but was cautious. My mate had his hand on the throttle with the intention of going around at any point he feels uncomfortable.

About 600 feet to the threshold, the birds started to fly away to the northern part of the runway. Noticing that, ATC gave us clearance to land. We carried on with our approach. About 30 feet prior to touchdown, we heard a loud thud coming from the port side of the aircraft. By then it was too late to go around as our main wheel had touched the ground. We informed ATC that we might have hit something about the 700 foot marker. ATC responded by sending out Rescue 1. We continued to taxy the aircraft back to the apron.

As were entering the apron to park our aircraft, ATC called us to say that a dead bird was found around where we thought we might have hit the something.

After parking the aircraft, we went out to check the port wing of our aircraft. There was no sign of damage but we informed operations and engineering that we had hit a bird.

Thankfully it was a small bird. Imagine if the entire flock of birds had slammed into us…. We wouldn't have been so lucky then..