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Close Call in Marlette: DEER!

goatflieg

Well Known Member
I've had some experience with deer in cars; hit one long ago; missed many since then. I've read and heard stories about deer on airports; seen a few myself and tried to keep vigilant. But these caught me by surprise. Caught on video and worth sharing. Stay safe out there.
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https://youtu.be/kg-3l2xgVcQ
 
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Dang! But you kept your cool and kept on flying - well done.

Great video - nice callouts and smooth flying.
 
That was pretty close Martin. I skimmed over a bald eagle the other day near KTEW. A deer is a whole different category!!
 
Nice job Martin! I think that whenever I see deer out on the road, there’s usually two or three, especially when driving in northern Michigan. The deer in southern Michigan seem like they are a little bigger - maybe because they are eating corn rather than pine cones. The quick maneuverability of our RV’s, plus a cool head made a difference.

I like to fly for cheap fuel, since I’m just out flying around anyway, but it’s amazing what cheap fuel costs now. I see that as of 7/14 the 100LL price is $7.00 at 77G, autofuel at $6.50. I guess those are competitive prices now. At my airport (KHAO) it’s $8.07 full service (no self serve), so I get it elsewhere nearby for about $6.50.
 
Nicely done Martin, yep, wildlife is a hazard to keep a serious lookout for.
I once spotted a group of 4 deer on the left side of the runway about 500' from the threshold, just as I was flaring.
That was a surprise. They were standing still, brown on brownish turf, making them difficult to see.
I applied power to overshoot and instead of running back into the woods, they darted across the runway as I overflew the group.
Can't say what would have happenned if I had landed, but I can imagine a not too pretty ending...
Happy to have a surplus amount of power to quickly climb back up if need be!
 
Good story.
My aircraft lives on a grass strip with a pond on one side and the creek going under runway. We have geese living in those areas and they like to cross the runway with their little ones. FUN
Art
 
Feel lucky that they’re just deer…out here, we’ve got wild horses!!

(And then there are the coyotes chasing jackrabbits….)
 
FAD (Foreign Animals Dashing) on runway

Here we get pronghorns and cows. An occasional horse but not wild.

I had a pronghorn lope across the runway just as I touched down on a dirt strip landing in the Cub recently. Thankfully, the Cub lands slowly and he was pretty interested on getting quickly to the West side of the strip. They can come singly or in groups.

After I saw the deer in this video, my first inclination was to buzz the strip again to make sure there were no others. Or the three that crossed hadn't decided to come back.

It is nice to have airplanes that perform well enough going over (rather than through) the deer was an option. Nice job. Full landing configuration aborts are a good skill to keep up on, especially if one is inclined to use 40 degrees of flap on landing.......like I do. I do just-before-touchdown aborts. My carb heat is just in front of the throttle and full forward throttle puts my hand on the carb heat control. Then SLOWLY raise the (manual) flaps; dumping all that lift suddenly can make you test your gear for flexibility......:eek:
 
I was not that fortunate...

Martin,

So glad you avoided a deerstrike...I can tell you from experience that it is a high hazard event.

Mine happened on my first day of RV ownership when I was returning home with my good friend and transition instructor Terry Lutz. Second landing of the journey at Hot Springs, Arkansas and all I saw was the blur off my left side immediately before the impact.

Thankfully, we stayed upright and on the centerline. The plane was eventually totaled and a couple of months later I was fortunate enough to purchase my current -7.

Stay safe out there!
Mitch
 

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I flew over a bunch of deer yesterday on short final. Luckily for me they were running along the OUTSIDE of the airport perimeter fence.
 
I flew over a bunch of deer yesterday on short final. Luckily for me they were running along the OUTSIDE of the airport perimeter fence.

Unless that fence is 8 to 10 feet tall it means nothing.

Cost me a shattered wheel pant, new flap skin and small dent in underside of wing (tank) when a couple of fonds started racing along the RV-3B and one decided to cross right in front of me.

Finn
 
Martin,

So glad you avoided a deerstrike...I can tell you from experience that it is a high hazard event.

Mine happened on my first day of RV ownership when I was returning home with my good friend and transition instructor Terry Lutz. Second landing of the journey at Hot Springs, Arkansas and all I saw was the blur off my left side immediately before the impact.

Thankfully, we stayed upright and on the centerline. The plane was eventually totaled and a couple of months later I was fortunate enough to purchase my current -7.

Stay safe out there!
Mitch

Terry emailed two other photos of your deer strike to me yesterday. Wow. Sorry the plane was totalled but glad you guys survived it. I hit a deer while driving my friends Honda Civic through Yosemite at 3am. I've never seen a deer work so hard to get in front of a car in my life; I was glad it was a small one and didn't come through our windshield. One of my worst car memories ever, and it's kept me watching for them ever since. I have seen deer on runways before and aborted a takeoff once. Landing the RV-8 takes a fair amount of concentration, but now I know to broaden my situational awareness.
 
Deer whistle ??

I seem to recall that you could buy a deer whistle to put on your car to keep them away.
Did that work, and does it still exist?
Could it be installed and functionnal on a RV??
 
Deer whistles.....

OK: deer whistles. One of the most ingenious marketing schemes since hoodo sticks and snake oil (which you could rub on your airplane; that keeps a lot of things away!) A great marketing ploy was, if you hit a deer with those on, they would give you your money back :D:D:D So they have sold millions of dollars of these things and would gladly give you your $6 back!

There has been NO documented evidence these things work other than to make the people who sell them a little richer! If the noise of a CAR whistling down a highway doesn't scare them off, what are deer whistles going to do? They don't jump in front of your car to get killed; the are trying to get to the other side of the road...or runway, if that is the case. The are focused on their mission and not on listening for deer whistles.

IMHO but I wish I had invented them! What a hoot! I have a special bell on my house that keeps the elephants away. It apparently works really well: haven't seen even ONE elephant!!:D:D:D
 
Stay on your toes

You definitely want to stay on your toes and scan the whole airport before landing at the coastal airports here in Oregon.
 

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... they are trying to get to the other side of the road...or runway, if that is the case...

You are giving them way too much credit. I have sincere doubts they have any clue as to what they want -- other than getting themselves killed. They are 100% unpredictable. Why would they start racing you and then try to cross in front of you?

They'll stand or lay in the middle of the runway. As you approach it's anybody's guess whether they will stay there, move left or right or to or from you.

I'm not aware of any other animal that will not try to run away or flee from noise.

Finn
 
Quite the opposite! Had one on a Jeep Grand Cherokee once and never had so many close calls with deer. They seemed to want to stop in the road to see what in the **** the whistling was. Talked to a buddy who said his dad that had retired from the USFS here in WA had said they tried them out on their fleet for a while and ended up taking them off for the same reason.

I seem to recall that you could buy a deer whistle to put on your car to keep them away.
Did that work, and does it still exist?
Could it be installed and functionnal on a RV??
 
I hit a deer in 2014

I hit a deer landing in my 10 in 2014. 18k later the plane was back flying again. A little while after that I almost hit a buck in a citation just after rotating. That one scared me a lot more while accelerating vs decelerating in the 10.
 
You definitely want to stay on your toes and scan the whole airport before landing at the coastal airports here in Oregon.

Likewise at the more rural airports in Washington State.

Late last year I was flying out to the Pacific coast and as I neared Forks, WA, I was watching an RV on ADS-B and it started descending and figured it was going to land there. I orbited Forks at 6,500’ to watch him land. As he turned Base I tuned to the Forks CTAF and heard the RV announce he was turning final for RWY 4, and immediately recognized Jay’s voice, a friend of mine. So I decided to land and see if we could meet up and have lunch together. I flew out to La Push as I was descending and turned back to Forks, checked the wind, and entered the pattern for RWY 04. On final as I was starting to flare I was startled to see a large number of large animals to the left of the runway, in a large area from the windsock east, and to the north. I was concerned they would bolt for the runway, but my landing didn’t seem to phase them. I rolled a little past the turnoff and made a 180 and taxied to the ramp, keeping an eye on the critters.

There must have been 40 to 50 Elk grazing in the grass north of the runway.

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The two RVs parked at Forks:

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Jay wasn’t at his airplane so I walked over to the restaurant. I was concerned about leaving the airplane’s there with the herd of Elk nearby. As I was walking down the taxiway, I was also concerned that the Elk might take notice of me and not like it. The nearest Elk was a very large bull and he picked up his head from grazing to look at me for few minutes. He then meandered a little further away to the north.

So Jay was at the restaurant and I joined him for lunch.

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On the walk back to the airplanes I took a pic of a few of them lounging after their lunch.

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A Cessna 182 that is based there took off before us and the herd of Elk paid no attention to him. Jay took off before me and they paid no attention to him either.

And a pic of Jay firing up for the trip home.

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We were lucky with the ‘friendly' Elk at Forks. Had I seen them earlier I wouldn’t have landed. Reminded me to look more carefully for livestock on or near the airport before landing.

However, back in 2017 Todd Rudberg, who is based at Paine Field, hit two Elk at Nehalem Bay State Park in Oregon on landing in his Fastback RV-8. That airplane is flying again after a lot of work.

Pics and story:

 
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