WT Forums

Just an observation. As many of you know, Ft Wayne is still the new kid on the block, converting to the A-10C starting a year ago. My jet, 80-0217 after acceptance has been flying quite well for the past three months. In the past month I've had two good bird strikes. About three weeks ago I had a bird put a fist sized dent on my #2 nacelle...luckily on the outside and the bird bounced off. We banged out the dent to acceptable limits and were good to go. This Thursday a big bird got whacked on my gun. Guts in the barrels, hit the left slat, and the #1 nacelle with some getting eaten by the #1 engine. Again, other than the blood and guts, the bypass took care of the bird and nothing went in the engine itself. No damage, PR c/w...ready to go next scheduled mission.

In the past three or four months we have had some good hits though. One jet had a bird take out the engine cone which did FOD out the engine to an extent. The engine was still running after landing and at dearm. Other than a TEMS code of an engine vibration and another one for slight loss of power, everything was still running fine. After shutdown and further inspection, fan blades were chewed up, engine blades were shot, and nacelle had damage. Crazy, the engine was junk, but was still working and got the jet home without a hitch, and the driver didn't even know he hit a bird other than his wingman mentioning a \"pink mist\" that came out of his engine. Lots of bird-burger like playdough squeezing out of the nacelle door...ack!

Another bird put a fist sized hole in the right slat on another jet. Swap slat, good to go.

On other occasions we see blood spots, call in a bird strike, take a sample, clean it off, and no defects...back in the air.

So, out of a couple dozen bird strikes in the past 5-6 months we've had two that have caused red X damage. Hogs are freakin' tough!


I should submit a form-22. Part of the BPO/PR is to make sure the canopy and windscreen is clean from bug splats and stuff...I should add you need to clean bird guts and blood off of everything after every other flight...heh.

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SoWW #2485
Cave Putorium!

LOL...they've had a few at moody the last few months...the bad thing is A-10s are so slow the birds are running into them from behind

In all seriousness we had one about two months ago that hit just right and ripped through the skin and into the cockpit, pilot was covered in bird guts...yuck!!!

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Funniest one I ever saw was a Turkey vulture strike in the leading edge of the right vertical stab. All you could see were two feet sticking out of a fairly small hole.

It was scarier when I flew the A7. Large birds would come thru the front windscreen.

Had a DM bird catch one right on the muzzle of the gun once. Guts got shoved down all the barrels. In the AZ heat, it stunk to high heavens by the time we got the gun pulled.

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Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

Deviating from the bird theme, I read of a Hog that hit a coyote.
It gained 'Wily Coyote' nose art after the incident.......its in one of Don Logans Hog books.

I was on de-arm end of EOR duty one night at DM. We'd had rain earlier that day, and there were some puddles on the ramp, so when an A-10 landed, and missed his turn off to the EOR apron, I though maybe he'd missed seeing the line due to a puddle. The pilot snapped the bird around, off into the dirt, kicking up dust and turning around and around. Finally he pull back onto the pavement, and taxied up like nothing was wrong. We kicked the chock into place and when I plugged the comm cord in to deliver my safety instructions, the pilot starts yelling, \"DID YOU SEE IT? DID YOU SEE IT?\" \"See what sir?\" \"Big ole Coyote out there!\" \"Sir, you are telling me that you are out there chasing a coyote with a 4 million dollar air craft?\" By this time, I was laughing so hard I nearly missed his reply. \"Well I won't tell if you don't.\" Laughing, all I could say was, \"You're secret is safe with me. Hell, who'd believe it anyway?\"

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Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

I am pretty sure there is an instance of a birdstrike taking down a Hog. It hit the leading edge of the wing. The hyd lines were run in front of the spar and ruptured and caught fire.

Can anyone confirm this or is my memory gone?

Leroy

I don't recall that specifically, but there was a crash by a Madison ANG guy who had chafing of his hydraulic lines at the wing root that caused a fuselage fire and he had to jump out.

I hit 18 birds once in the UK...flew through a flock of them! One hit the spinner and dented it, causing some interesting vibrations.

Coach

Bloody hell!........lucky you didnt have a 'Sullenberger' situation, what are the glide characteristics of the Hog?!

There are a couple of bird sanctuaries in the vicinity of the 'twinbases' shown on the latest CAA charts, Havergate in particular right near Woodbridge.......were they a problem back in the day?

My incident happened up by Linton.

You had me till the driving in the dirt part. I went around once landing at San Juan in an A300 for a huge Iguana on the runway. I had to completely stop for another one on the taxi way . That 300,000 lb bird's nosewheel 10 ft away didn't bother him. He finally leisurely ambled off.

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Leroy
Retired Hog Driver
FWIC Graduate
Gunsmoke 83 A10 Top Gun

Oh puleeze!! George Washington wrote that joke!

Buzzards stink like hell alive and in one piece.

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Leroy
Retired Hog Driver
FWIC Graduate
Gunsmoke 83 A10 Top Gun

BaconBits, you cannot use \"glide\" and \"Hog\" [...what are the glide characteristics of the Hog?! ] in the same sentence. It's grammatically and physically incorrect.

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\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

Here's HUD footage of a bird strike...

http://www.thewarthogpen.com/bs_files/bird.wmv

about the same as a homesick rock. Gravity Its the LAW!

Fighters and L/V dont Mix.

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\"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. \"

George S. Patton