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Earlier this week, a CMA-based Lancair ES collided with a seagull over
CMA. The bird hit the lower pilot's side windshield and took out about a
third of it. The good news is that the pilot was able to sideslip the
plane to a short approach and land successfully.

Some background: I had helped a bit to build this ES; it has about 100
hrs. and was being flown in a nice white primer. The overall workmanship
is very good and the interior was beautifully done in leather.

The pilot reported that he was doing 140 mph (seems pretty fast to me for
the airport area) and did not see the bird prior to impact. The Lancair
ES windshield is 0.25 in. thick and it broke into pieces that were
irregular and between 2 and 3 in. on a side. One piece struck the pilot
in the head, requiring 18 stitches and drenching the pilot's white shirt
in his own blood. Seems like most everything that broke ended up inside
the plane, the seagull also. On the exterior, there was just one swatch
of highly munched seagull near the top of the vertical tail. There is no
evidence that the bird impacted the propellor.

Now for the really bad news... Every (and I do mean every) square inch of
the interior of the plane looks like it has been painted with seagull
puree! This must have been a big one... It is truly difficult to imagine
this without seeing it! Imagine taking one giant, just-fed seagull;
stuffing all its body orifices with M-80s and detonating them all at
once! And the insurance company asked that the interior not be cleaned
until they could inspect it (which took 2 days). So the seagull spackling
is now very difficult to remove (and stinks too).

Any moral to this story: always fly wearing glasses as this could happen
to you.
-------------------------
Good building,

Tom Nalevanko
Stallion Builder