See and avoid? Birds

[Steve Davies]

Can anyone provide a brief overview of how the Air Force mitigates against low-level bird strikes?

I seem to recall from a trip to Seymour Johnson that there was a service which highlighted low-level routes where birds might be more prevalent at a given time of the year. I also believe that there was a grading system for risk.

Are these systems still in effect, and are they integrated into Falcon View or similar? Is it down to the discretion of the mission commander to avoid these, or are the AFIs that mandate flagged areas be avoided?

TIA

[HU&W]

http://www.usahas.com/

[nunya]

Can anyone provide a brief overview of how the Air Force mitigates against low-level bird strikes?

I seem to recall from a trip to Seymour Johnson that there was a service which highlighted low-level routes where birds might be more prevalent at a given time of the year. I also believe that there was a grading system for risk.

Are these systems still in effect, and are they integrated into Falcon View or similar? Is it down to the discretion of the mission commander to avoid these, or are the AFIs that mandate flagged areas be avoided?

TIA

BAM, BASH, and AHAS (links on the BaseOps homepage). One source is based on historic data and one is based on real time observations and radar. And bases have their own "Bird Watch Conditions" usually. Local regs determine what you can and can't do under different levels of bird activity. From ops normal to suspended ops. I think I remember that Little Rock made you fly higher on low-levels during certain bird conditions. I haven't seen any Falcon View integration, but it might be out there. It is integrated into a far more powerful program, however - Google Earth.

[Toro]

The links in the previous posts are right on. Most likely they were using AHAS when you were at Seymour Johnson. For low level flights, part of the pre-flight prep includes checking the AHAS condition along your route (it will break it down by legs). If AHAS is down, then they would revert to BAM (which I believe was slightly more restrictive).

What Nunya mentioned about the varying levels of restriction is the same with SJ (it's a local reg). There were three levels of bird condition - low, moderate, severe. Low was ops normal, moderate meant you couldn't fly below 1500AGL you had to stay below 450 knots, and severe meant you couldn't fly below 4500AGL. After numerous birdstrikes and an ejection caused by birdstrikes (and almost a second), the safety folks were very cautious with bird status.

As with everything else, flight leads can be more restrictive than the reg, but not less. So if you see birds on a route that was previously labeled as bird low, you can bump it up to moderate and fly higher (along with reporting it to the SOF), but you cannot go lower and faster unless AHAS is updated.

[contraildash]

BIRDS!!! (thought these were appropriate)

[Steve Davies]

Thanks, Gents.

[check6]

A few months back I was doing a little flying. Shortly after take off, we found ourselves flying right through a large flock of birds. Unfortunately for us, both our engines had ingested these things. I kept hearing a pop, bang, or buzz in each engine and I knew we were in trouble. I immediately tried to turn back for the airfield, but we were losing energy fast. It became evident that we wouldn't make it back to an airfield so I had to make one of the toughest decisions of my life--to land this jet in a river. Well using my gliding experience I was able to bring her down softly to the water, flaring it off almost 35 knots below bug! Luckily then we all were able to perform an emergency egress and we all made it out okay. I even grabbed the forms on my way out to log the .2 and note some possible water damage in the 781. When I got back to land I called the SOF, and he updated the bird status to "aggressive moderate."

[BQZip01]

A few months back I was doing a little flying. Shortly after take off, we found ourselves flying right through a large flock of birds. Unfortunately for us, both our engines had ingested these things. I kept hearing a pop, bang, or buzz in each engine and I knew we were in trouble. I immediately tried to turn back for the airfield, but we were losing energy fast. It became evident that we wouldn't make it back to an airfield so I had to make one of the toughest decisions of my life--to land this jet in a river. Well using my gliding experience I was able to bring her down softly to the water, flaring it off almost 35 knots below bug! Luckily then we all were able to perform an emergency egress and we all made it out okay. I even grabbed the forms on my way out to log the .2 and note some possible water damage in the 781. When I got back to land I called the SOF, and he updated the bird status to "aggressive moderate."

I'd love to hear when, where, what time of day, etc

[czecksikhs]

I'd love to hear when, where, what time of day, etc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesley_Sullenberger

Even my wife caught the sarcasm on this one, dude.

[WheelsOff]

F-16 bird strike (HUD video)

(video is in the link)

[Steve Davies]

F-16 bird strike (HUD video)

(video is in the link)

That's no Viper. It's a Hawk 115 (CT-115) of the NFTC. Stud was RAF and IP Canadian.

Thanks for the link, though.

[Guest justawife]

F16 birdstrike landed the jet

[afnav]

Unfortunately, sometimes the birds win, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Yukla 27, RIP.

[BQZip01]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesley_Sullenberger

Even my wife caught the sarcasm on this one, dude.

That's what I thought at first, but you mentioned a LOT of details that didn't line up with Sully's experiences. Perhaps too much online sarcasm?

On a more interesting note, Sullenburger has a drink named after him, the "Sully": two shots of grey goose with a splash of water.