Tuesday, August 07, 2018

Yeah, That Ain't Good

My elder son tells a story like this when he worked at an aircraft body-and-fender shop as an airframe mechanic.

It seems that a Gulfstream landed with a bird strike.  They hit a goose at almost 30,000 feet.  The bird took out the radar, penetrated the firewall, and extruded itself into the instrument panel.

Elder son says that when he looked into the cockpit, he saw feathers and bits of bird-snot hanging out of the instrument panel.

It was a helluva mess.

Edit to add:  Some may question the altitude, but we find this in Wikipedia:
The maximum flight ceiling of Canada geese is unknown, but they have been reported at 9 km (29,000 feet).
The geese may mot have calibrated their altimeter, or the pilot may have been stretching the story.  Either premise is understandable.

4 comments:

Jester said...

Goose at 30000 feet? Seems a bit high for them, but I'll take that they mess it all up upon landing or taking off. No matter what, not a situation I Want to be part of!

Old NFO said...

Got a little noisy and drafty in there too!

Flugelman said...

Probably hail. Came back in a P-3 once with a similar radome after a thunderstorm encounter north of Norfolk.

Ed Jones said...

Was on a B-52 out of Ramey AFB, PR. Hit a eagle at 29,000+ feet just under the pilots windshield, rapid decompression, fogged up the hole thing. Not fun at all.