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The fun never ends - BIRD STRIKE :(

WingnutWick

Well Known Member
Today's adventure involved the ol' lady flying our new 10 into a flock of large birds and taking one on the wing, outboard of the fuel tank. No change in flight characteristics on the RTB and not a direct hit on the rib, though some buckling goes up to the rib. Hopefully mostly cosmetic-ish in regards to structural damage (as cosmetic as damage to a wing can be I mean).

So.....sighhhh....where to go from here from those in the know. Anyone know someone in CA (or nearby) who is good at repairing something like this. Open to suggestions and advice.

Thanks as always.

CW
 

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bird strike

OUCH!!! I dodged an eagle at 3500 yesterday. He was only about 100 feet above me with his wings tucked back.
I was lucky I didn't have to join the BS club.
Art
 
Mornin’ CW

A while back, I had some bad damage near the wingtip of my Air Tractor 502 and bought an inspection port kit, complete with a ring, inspection plate. I cut a hole to match just behind the damage, used a ball from a tow hitch and my body man friend to remove most of the damage.

Pain in the Azz,
 
Bird Strike

If you cut a hole and fit an inspection plate as Pierre suggests, make the plate structural.

Just my tuppence worth.

Rob
 
yes, bird strikes, one of my biggest concerns while flying. one of our local rv8s took a hit in the lower cowl this month. you hear about this all the time. keep your eyes outside as much as possible and learn to react when they are in front and up in the windshield. :eek:
 
Ouch. That’s a fuel tank. Good news is that it screws off. Bad news it’s a pain in the butt to build.
 
Ouch. That’s a fuel tank. Good news is that it screws off. Bad news it’s a pain in the butt to build.
You're half-right. He said it was outboard of the tank, so it doesn't unscrew. But it will still be a pain in the butt to replace. :(
 
yes, bird strikes, one of my biggest concerns while flying. one of our local rv8s took a hit in the lower cowl this month. you hear about this all the time. keep your eyes outside as much as possible and learn to react when they are in front and up in the windshield. :eek:

Agree, and although slowing down is against most RV pilots goal in life, it a good way to give both the bird and yourself more time to react.
 
Pilot training

I’m in the BS club with a big hit and maybe a small one, but through my training, I don’t recall ever having training about a target rich environment, do to speak. Is there a good article or similar?
 
I had a pretty nasty bird strike about this same time last year, **** thing tried to kill me and nearly succeeded, was the second scariest day of my life. Learned a lot from that day.

Glad everyone's alright in your situation, CW. Your wing looks like it should be pretty repairable. Maybe Scott will jump in with some thoughts.
 
Avoidance

I’m in the BS club with a big hit and maybe a small one, but through my training, I don’t recall ever having training about a target rich environment, do to speak. Is there a good article or similar?

There are many big size birds in the region where I fly and the CFI who did my RV transition training advised that, apart from keeping a good lookout, to bank and turn well away so the bird(s) can see the bottom profile of the airplane. Their instinct is to fold and dive when threatened, so to try to stay above them. Wig-wag lighting is supposedly effective at warning off birds.
 
Based near the Atlantic coast, we have lots of good size birds. I have stopped most flying low because of some near misses and stay above the thermal tops to avoid them. In coastal Va. the thermals are weak and seldom go above 5-6k. Most birds won’t go much over 1-2k except eagles who seem to fly for the joy of it. Seen them at 5K and geese much higher during migration.
 
Two color spinner

The Brits have used two colored spinners on their trainers for a long time now and claim good results because of the ‘strobe’ effect. One third of the spinner is a contrasting color, since a normal spinner doesn’t appear to be moving from a distance.

Best,
 
2021101109224220-5336677900839986321-IMG_2364-XL.jpg


That was a bird the size of a Swallow at just over 220kts in our PC-12.......

Amazingly, a new stack was $3,000
 
Had to be done…

What do you mean? An African or a European Swallow?

Figuring it was just bait. ;)
 
What do you mean? An African or a European Swallow?

Figuring it was just bait. ;)

It must have been a European Swallow. The European swallow migrates seasonally, while the African variety does not.

Plus, we're assuming it was an unladen swallow. But it's also possible the damage came from a coconut.
 
A flock of geese!

The other day while doing some pattern work at my home base KLDJ, I was turning crosswind at about 700AGL when I had to quickly dive under a flock of migrating Canadian geese. They were in a big V, about 50’ above me and I was heading right for them. I aborted my turn and shoved the stick forward. All was well. They passed above and were soon behind me. It could have been pretty ugly hitting a bunch of big birds that close to the ground. I have an Garmin GPS, and ForeFlight with ADSB on an iPad and I always keep a good eye out for traffic, but these guys did not show up on either device. I guess the windshield and the old eyes are still important.
 
So search your area for someone that does paint less dent repair and have them look at the damage to see if they can pull it. They might be able to pull it out and work out the damage. at least mostly. Or……..might be a possible location for a landing or taxi light installation.
 
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So search your area for someone that does paint less dent repair and have them look at the damage to see if they can pull it. They might be able to pull it out and work out the damage. at least mostly. Or……..might be a possible location for a landing or taxi light installation.

The landing light thing keeps popping up….always unsure if it’s a serious suggestion. But it would be a huge no, no, cutting a hole in the leading edge somewhere other than at the tip would involve serious engineering.
 
All I know is that subjects like this one (Bird Strikes) should be preceded by the statement: The Following images May be Disturbing to Aircraft Owners and Pilots.....

-Marc
 
Thread drift, I know - but I am impressed with the understanding of irony here - most unusual on a Colonial forum....... ;)
 
All, thanks for the input. I guess my question would be: pound it out or just go ahead and replace the skin? From those with experience in such matters. Ribs looks like they are fine. From what I'm gathering is it seems like "it depends" is the consensus. In which case I may try the pointless dent removal, followed by an inspection panel/pound out, and finally just replace the skin if it comes to that.

Any suggestions for inspection panel kits out there specifically?

Thanks
 
All, thanks for the input. I guess my question would be: pound it out or just go ahead and replace the skin? From those with experience in such matters. Ribs looks like they are fine. From what I'm gathering is it seems like "it depends" is the consensus. In which case I may try the pointless dent removal, followed by an inspection panel/pound out, and finally just replace the skin if it comes to that.

Any suggestions for inspection panel kits out there specifically?

Thanks

I think if you remove the tank there might be enough access from the inboard end of that LE section that a paintless dent repair technician can get that dent out to 95% or better so you can keep flying. I would strip the paint and check the skin for cracks after the repair. Long term you would need to reskin it if you want it pretty.
 
T
Anyone know someone in CA (or nearby) who is good at repairing something like this. Open to suggestions and advice.

I personally would not pound it out. It appears to have some significant deformation with bends/creases at or near the minimum bend radius, along with at least two ribs affected. Bending those back to straight will weaken the metal when you bend it back with the potential for forming small cracks.

Either way, you'll have to cut the tank open to just reach the nose to pound the metal. And knowing how much effort it is to disassemble and repair a wing (yup, been there, done that), I'd just buy the new parts for the whole tank and redo it.

I'm assuming that you mean a repair shop. A good one is up in Lakeport, Steve's Aircraft Repair. I had a birdstrike on a flap landing in my Baron several years back. He does very good work.

Have you thought about just doing it yourself? Being that it is a fuel tank, you can remove it and rebuild it right on a work bench. Proseal sucks, but the actual rebuild isn't that hard. You can get a new skin from Van's for $125, plus some ribs, rivets and pro-seal - probably less than the cost of getting the tank repainted at a shop.
 
Ron,
If I read it correctly, it is just outboard of the wing tank. There could be access to the backside of it through the rib.
 
Wingnut,

The paintless dent removal guys that I know all work from the backside and push instead of pounding. They typically work the dent in the reverse order of how it was formed / Last in - First out.

You may want to make a temporary reinforcement for the rear portion of the rib lightening holes if you go this way. They will use the rear of the lightening hole as a fulcrum for their tools.
 
Ron,
If I read it correctly, it is just outboard of the wing tank. There could be access to the backside of it through the rib.

ahh, good catch, thanks. Ok, even more incentive to just de-rivet the leading edge skin. While banging it out would be a short term repair, if it's not affecting flight control, bending it back out would weaken the skin more than just leaving it until it can be repaired with a new skin.

It's actually a pretty straight-forward skin replacement. And even though prices are going up, it's still a fairly low cost repair - much less than a shop repair.
 
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