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No one is immune to bird strikes.

One of our early B-1's was lost to a flock of geese - if I remember, we lost
the crew too. Seems they were running through a known migratory fly-way in
the middle of the country and scooped up more Canadian geese than the
airplane could handle. Most likely got into them at around 5 - 600 MPH so
they had no chance to evade.

Recently, on two different flights a few days apart returning from Spokane
to my home base in Coeur d'Alene, about a 15 minute hop, I encountered a
seagull right on my nose. At 165 kts, I didn't see it until the last few
seconds and I'm guessing it had the same problem. Both times, at the moment
we saw each other, the seagull folded up and dropped below my nose as,
startled, I pulled up at maybe 3 - 4 G's. It went under my nose but not by
much. Judging from these two encounters, it looks like birds do try to dive
to avoid an airplane. Hope they all read the same manual 'cause I'm planning
to pull up again, if it happens again.

Fly safe,

Dan Schaefer

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Please send your photos and drawings to marvkaye@olsusa.com.
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