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CTSW 1 Bird 0


CT4ME

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Ya know how, when you're driving along and you see birds playing "chicken" with traffic? You know, flying low across lanes of traffic, just barely missing the windshields?  I swear they do it on purpose...

 

A couple tried it today when we were flying along at about 6.5k (2500 agl).... 

 

'Didn't turn out good for one...

ctswbird1.jpg

radiator after picking out a few pieces...  no apparent damage. I'm pretty sure the paint crack at 2 o'clock was there already.

ctswbird2.jpg

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Lucky it hit there. We had a chimney swift hit the canopy and punch out an elliptically shaped hole about 3 inches long and an inch and  half tall, about mid-way up just past the edge of the post on the pilot's side.  We were down for 10 weeks and the total bill was $10K. 

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Taught that little guy a lesson, he won't make that mistake again! (for obvious reasons   :laughter-3293:   ) 

 

I agree with Andy, Tim lucked out.  No real damage, just a nasty cleanup job.  I know where I fly it's only a matter of time...there are so many turkey buzzards, starlings, and other avians around here that if I fly long enough we *will* try to occupy the same volume of space at some point.  I hope when it happens it's as much a non-event as Tim's, or at least not as painful as Andy's!  

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BTW, if this ever happens to you and you're curious about what species did the damage, they can make an i.d. with only a few scraps of feathers.  That's how we knew it was a chimney swift...about a 2-3 oz. bird.  I sent the feather scraps I scraped off to the Smithsonian lab at the address referred to by the link Corey provided. 

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