Thread: Mid air with bald eagle

I hate to be the first for this part, but anyways here it goes...........

This time of the year we get the clear blue sky quiet days and flying down the river valleys is especially nice due to the changing colour.

Last weekend , I was flying over the Bow river east of Calgary following the river valley at about 500ft above the valley floor. It makes for nice flying following the twists and turns of the river and looking down to see the scenery and colours. While I was flying over a point bar in the river I noticed something on the ground which made me do a left turn of 360. My speed was about 95kts in the turn. I was looking down and about half way through the turn I looked forward again and in a flash I saw a bald eagle with its wings spread "eagled" about 50 yards in front of me off to my left a bit. It went over top of my wing just inside of the fuel vent with its claws out and the wings massively spread. At the same time I heard a clang sound from the wing and I realized I hit the eagle. I leveled off and loosened my straps to lean forward and check for damage. I did not see any and the response of the controls was fine. I flew to the nearest airport and landed and inspected the wing to notice a little nick out of the gelcoat from the leading edge of the wing (about the size of a bug stain).

I must have just hit the claw from the eagle (who must have a sore toe) but realize that if the bird would have impacted fully the damage would have been quite severe on the leading edge. Not even to mention if it would have impacted the prop.

It is hard to imagine how big an eagle is with its wings fully spread until you see it from up close.

All be careful out there; we share the airspace with its natural "owners" and we are just passing through and visiting.

Quite the scare for both me and the eagle I am sure.

The situation described here is not so uncomon as one would think.
My personal experience of flight in Spain has shown me that we have a very large population of big birds, vultures being the biggest. I have also noticed that the smaller the birds, the more evading action they take, and the opposite applies to the big ones.

The lesson to learn here is to be extremely vigilant in flight for these kind of birds.
If one of these birds hits the "wrong place" -and there are many sensitive and delicate places in our CT's, a disaster can happen in no time. Here the balistic parachutes are so needed.

I am glad that someone had this experience, and did report it on this forum.

Let's be extra-alert with what happens out there, since we sometime indulge too much looking at instruments, GPS etc. in the cabin.

Happy and safe flight to all !!

josé

i've had a near miss with a golden eagle. as well turkey vultures, pelicans, bald eagles are big hazzards.

i've learned in my years of flying and soaring around here that the golden eagles will soar with you and most other large birds will evade. the goldens are the ones you will most likely encounter at altitude and away from terrain or other birds therefore making them the most dangerous.

I've found over the years flying in Alaska that the bald eagle is one of the few birds that won't even try to get out of your way.

Coming in to PWA this weekend, there were flocks / gaggles / bunches of some kind of white bird flying around about 1000 AGL. There are a pair of lakes by PWA, and the birds love them.

I was convinced that I was going to wind up finding out what kind of birds they were the hard way - by having one come through the windscreen. Fortunately, they stayed together and away from me, but it was downright scary - one bird is easier to miss, but what if one of them turns in a different direction?

I remember seeing a bald eagle that struck a jet ranger. It came through the plexi and left blood and feathers everywhere. Pax was injured by the flying plexi pieces but ultimately Ok. Can't imagine a CT would fare well.....

Doug

Whenever you listen to the ATISor AWOS at PWA, they give a very stern warning about the birds at those lakes. They're Egrets and live there year round. They seem to love just flying around the airport.

John