birds right at rotation
 

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this. Last evening I had an interesting encounter with some rather small, white, avians right before I lifted off a 150 on a relatively short runway (1900 ft). The airport environment was blanketed with a good feet of snow and I did not see the little white birds for reasons stated above. Held the brakes for maximum power and on my ground roll maybe 2 seconds prior to reaching rotation speed I saw these buggers take flight right in front of me. Needless to say, it scared the you know what out of me. Okay so here is what was going through my mind. If some of those birds got into the cowling, I would be in some serious trouble because there is simply no runway remaining. It is too late to apply brakes now, and since they were flying at about the height of the cowling, if I did brake I would undoubtedly hit them. So right after I lifted the nose at 55 kias, I was airborne (lucky it was about 33 degrees and I weigh about 125 lbs, although the airplane had full tanks, I was solo) I was able to lift the nose perhaps to a Vx attitude for a while. I also had 10 degrees of flaps in. I made it, but I could not stop thinking, what if my engine did choke right at lift off as a result of such a strike? Of course I would push on the stick and land straight ahead. This was a really bad situation for any pilot to be in. Anyway please chime in and let me know if I did the right thing. Thanks!

This is def. a nightmare for many pilots. I spent the last two years flying jumpers in a 182/KA90 on a 3500/ft runway, often right at MGW, and an uphill on one departure end, and trees with some fields the other. The engine failure case was scary, with a single engine I guess the best outcome would be to try and land and stop as fast as you can. If you already were past the end of the runway, then keep her as straight and level as possible and get her as slow as possible, and aim for the softest spot. One mistake I have seen people make, is thinking they hit a bird, and then trying to abort a takeoff, but already being very far down the runway. If you still have power, typically a safe landing can be made quickly via the pattern/ a 180 in light winds. Sounds like you did everything right, birds are common, and I am fairly sure the population is growing like crazy. Just always be on the look out, and if you hit one make the right choices quickly, and try to not make a bad situation worst. Hope this helps, maybe a CFI can chime in, as I am not a CFI.

Small birds are generally not a problem, even if you take several directly into the propeller. When I flew 402s, I took a good 6-7 small doves into both engines right at rotation one day; the safest course of action at that point was to continue the rotation and return to land. Neither prop was damaged. Birds didn't even stand a chance. :D

Sounds like you did what I would have done!

You would certainly want do what you did...continue the T/O rather than abort near the end of a short runway. Odds are that a bird strike is not going to stop a piston engine, unless it is a goose or eagle and breaks the prop.

If it sticks in the cowl, one side of the engine might overheat but you would probably have time to do a pattern and land...you could probably even shoot a full approach.

If it nailed the air filter you could solve that with carb heat (which bypasses the air filter in addition to heating the induction air).

If it went into the cowling, it would take longer to damage the engine than it would to go around the pattern. You were right though. Aborting when there is no runway left pretty much seals your fate. With altitude comes options IF it gets worse.

Took one down a motor at rotation, didn't know anything was wrong until someone said "you're on fire." $2 million in damage... that was exciting.

Thanks gents, really a nightmare for us! Hope to never to encounter such a situation again.