Birds and no radio

[ghostflyer]

Another exciting morning flying. I think I will take up knitting or darning socks. It was surposed to be a short flight over to town that's 12 mile away to get fuel. On downward leg everything was going great and I noticed some hang gliders on the runway being towed by a car. Radio call went out ,No answer. I made a base call and my intention of a full stop. car was parked in the middle of the runway .mmn ,not good. Turned on to final and gave another radio call . THEN "BANG" ,control column was ripped out of my hands and I was in a sharp dive. This was about 200 ft off the deck ,about to do a go around.
Grabbed the control column and reefed it back and hit power .Elevator very stiff to move. Gave a urgent call out explaining ,Controls jammed requiring runway urgently. Car and hang gliders remained where they were and no real movement of people. So climbed to 2500FT to sort it out.
opened my window and stuck my head out to see if what was causing the issues.
A large Ibis had hit my horizontal stabilizer and was wedged in between the elevator horn and the horizontal stabilizer. So working the elevator back and forth the bird started to break up. So head for home , a greaser of a landing and into the hangar.
So after a number of phone calls to the manager of the airport ,I was informed that the hang gliders do not have a radio and its not really required at this airport. So does any body know how to do a CROSS STICH, and what size needle do I use?

[jmurtap]

Yikes!!!

[Onewinglo]

Wow - Glad you were able to keep your composure and recover!
Thanks for sharing your experience - new guys like myself need to hear how to handle events like this.
Good Job!
JP White

[DaveF]

It's never just one thing that gets you. First the hang gliders, then the bird. Luckily there was no third thing!

[n2582d]

Make sure you get a liability release form signed before you take any kids up! Seriously, nice job of keeping your wits about you.

[strangebird]

Good job of flying the airplane first then sorting it all out, you did an excellent job

[ghostflyer]

To be honest , it was after I had landed that the situated sunk in. It was time for a cup of coffee. I fixed the aircraft today and that curved strip on the other edge of the horn of the elevator was a a pain . It's a very soft aluminium . Getting a new one would be impossible so the old one was reshaped. Instead of using solid rivets I used cherry max.

[AR Dave]

I jammed an Alder Limb, like that, coming out of a creek bed - could not move the yoke fwd/back at all. Nice to have bubble windows and that it was on the pilots side. Flew (full trim) to a friends strip (Meekins), which is sloped uphill. Just before stall, gave her a shot of thrust to get the nose up, then killed her. Had a hard time whittling that limb out.

[juredd1]

Ok so not required to have a radio I get that, lots of airports like that and lots of airplanes without radios. However are they allowed to camp out on the runway while they sort out whatever they were doing? Were they completely oblivious to your airplane on downwind, then base, then final. Like hey guys there's an airplane needing to land maybe we should not be setting in the middle of the runway like this.

Great job by the way.

Only had one actual contact with a bird once, somewhere around hour 8 of being a student pilot. Instructors head was down doing something, I seen what appeared like 6 or 8 buzzards doing their normal routine and before I could ask what now, I was on them, attempted to pull up and right but whack!!! I had the instructors attention by this time, it had hit on the left wings leading edge, we could see some indention in the wing but didn't look terrible but he said lets head back. Glad we did, there was a tear in the skin from about mid-line of the wings leading edge back 2-3 inches. Got lucky I guess and the bird hit right between two wing ribs.

Justin

[GAHorn]

(Facetious) NTSB REPORT:
Injuries: 1 Uninjured. I Fatal.
Damage: Cessna 170 - Minor. Ibis Glider - Total Loss.
Cause: Cessna pilot failed to See and Avoid Ibis on final approach. Final Approach Ibis had right-of-way.
Contributing Factors: Ultra light aircraft improperly parked upon and blocking runway
None of the involved aircraft had established communications.


(Seriously, Thank Goodness you were able to resolve the issues, and ...GOOD JOB!)

Tell that airport mgr to instruct ultralites to stay off the active runways until ready for immediate departure.

[DaveF]

Ghost, I'm thinking it's time for you to organize a flour bombing competition.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

I've hit my share of birds in a helicopter. Some you know you hit cause you heard it. Some you see because they just fouled the windshield up in front of you and your vision is blurred looking through whats left. Others you find the remnants jammed in the fuselage next preflight. The most I've hit at one time was about 10 sea gulls out of a flock of hundreds who flushed in front of my departure in a Huey.

And birds fly at night to.

I've never hit a bird I saw, not that I maneuvered out of their way, they did all the maneuvering. Of all the birds I pay the most attention to and fear hitting are Eagles. There is nothing in the sky they fear and they aren't moving for any helicopter. Other larger birds of pray are similar to Eagles and Turkey Buzzards try to do a good Eagle imitation but will dive at the last minute.

[GAHorn]

I hit some sort of waterfowl in a Twin Bonanza at night, descending thru 8K. The left inboard leading edge... (which was not thin sheet metal in a Twin-Bo).. looked like a cannonball had entered it leaving a huge cavity in front of the spar.. except that the hole was full of bloody meat, feathers, and a dangling, webbed-foot.