Deer Strike
02-03-2009, 08:08 PM
#1
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Joined APC: Jul 2007
Position: C402, on the side with the switches!
Posts: 432
Deer Strike
I stumbled upon these while backing up one of my old hard drives. Valkaria, FL (X59). 10/19/2004. Here's the story. The pics will follow.
It happened during my Commercial training, while I was at a local airport practicing touch-and-gos, solo. A deer ran out from the infield and struck the side of the airplane at rotation, about 65-70kts. I had no idea what had happened at the time, it hit the side of the cowling and just missed the prop. I heard a crash and felt a huge jolt. After the second or two of "*** just happened" thinking, I figured something really bad had probably happened and that I should abort. My first thought was a tire blew out.
When I tried to stop, the plane veered to the left, because my right brakes had failed. "Not out of the ordinary for a blowout," I thought. "Tire shrapnel probably cut the brake lines." After exiting the runway surface, I gained control (sort of) and continued on the grass. Not wanting to veer into the woods and erupt into a huge fireball (which would've been a cool story) I waited until I reached the intersection of the two runways, hit the brakes, and made a left turn down the perpindicular runway as I had planned. Not much runway there, but it's better than trees. The turn was apparantly harder than I remember; there were curved tire track on the runway made by both main wheels. Once I exited the runway surface (again) the plane went sideways, and I remember still moving fast enough that I thought the right main was going to shear off. I then groundlooped to a stop. When I couldn't open the door fully, I realized that it hadn't been a blowout at all. The inboard part of the wing was totally smashed.
I hopped back in the plane, fired up one of the radios so that I could tell the one other plane in the pattern that I had hit something and that he should be careful. He responded "Yeah, you hit a deer. It's just lying there... I think it's dead..."
I snapped the following pics and moseyed on down the runway to where there was already a guy named Leroy putting the deer into the back of his pickup. The airport manager was there too. He said "I was just putting the key into the lock and I heard a plane add power. Then I heard a crash, the engine sputtered, tires were screeching, and then there was nothing... silence. I went inside my office to get the truck keys and heard you guys chattering on the radio about a deer." Then he smiled and said "And that's when I called Leroy."
The deer was in surprisingly good condition. There wasn't any blood, but all it's legs were snapped and pointing every which way.
The plane cost about $30,000 to repair and was out of service until February. I was the talk of the school, but mostly because for the first few hours after it had happened, everyone who I hadn't personally spoken to thought I was dead. The rumor was that I had hit a deer, careened into a drainage ditch, and rolled the airplane over causing one of the wings to fold up and over the top of the airplane. I wasn't able to open the door so I burned to death. Pleasant. My instructor was not at the airport that morning (it was about 8am) so he also thought I was dead. He was pretty relieved when I called him.
When I first called the school to tell them what happened, they asked me if I could fly it back. I told them that it probably CAN fly, but I won't be the one flying it. The head of maintenance and the head of the flight school drove down, and the chief pilot flew another Warrior down to pick me up. When they got there, they all had looks of disbelief. The flight school head kept telling me "The most important thing for you is that you get back into a airplane and start flying." I guess they thought I'd be traumatized from the experience. I told them that I was in no way afraid of flying, and that I would gladly fly any airplane back to MLB except that one, given it's current condition. It didn't rattle me at all. Personally, I thought it was pretty cool, but I didn't tell them that. It'll take more than a freak deer strike to take me out of aviation. On the flight home, the CP said "So, do you want to fly it in, or would you rather just..." and he kind of trailed off. Of course I'll fly! It's not like I've got PTSD.
All in all, I think it was a good experience. It's amazing how fast our minds can work in an instance like that. The whole situation only lasted a few seconds, but I can't believe how quickly my mind gathered all the information it was given, all the "this happened" and "this didn't happen" and "ok, now this is happening so it must mean this" and spat out resolutions and ways to solve the problems.
They wound up taking the airplane apart, loading it onto a flatbed, and driving it back to MLB in the middle of the night, covered with a tarp.
Leroy later gave me a huge Ziploc bag full of venison that I brought to the airport one friday and grilled on the flight line. Everybody had free deer burgers that day.
A friend later suggested that I should've swapped places with the deer. Put the deer in the pilot's seat with my headset on and hoofs on the yoke, and I should've went and layed in the middle of the runaway. Oh well, hindsight's 20/20
The next few days were chock-full of FAA interviews, paperwork, and overall fun. To this day, I still remember the name of the man from the Orlando FSDO who woke me up at 7am for a phone interview. That was especially fun.
It happened during my Commercial training, while I was at a local airport practicing touch-and-gos, solo. A deer ran out from the infield and struck the side of the airplane at rotation, about 65-70kts. I had no idea what had happened at the time, it hit the side of the cowling and just missed the prop. I heard a crash and felt a huge jolt. After the second or two of "*** just happened" thinking, I figured something really bad had probably happened and that I should abort. My first thought was a tire blew out.
When I tried to stop, the plane veered to the left, because my right brakes had failed. "Not out of the ordinary for a blowout," I thought. "Tire shrapnel probably cut the brake lines." After exiting the runway surface, I gained control (sort of) and continued on the grass. Not wanting to veer into the woods and erupt into a huge fireball (which would've been a cool story) I waited until I reached the intersection of the two runways, hit the brakes, and made a left turn down the perpindicular runway as I had planned. Not much runway there, but it's better than trees. The turn was apparantly harder than I remember; there were curved tire track on the runway made by both main wheels. Once I exited the runway surface (again) the plane went sideways, and I remember still moving fast enough that I thought the right main was going to shear off. I then groundlooped to a stop. When I couldn't open the door fully, I realized that it hadn't been a blowout at all. The inboard part of the wing was totally smashed.
I hopped back in the plane, fired up one of the radios so that I could tell the one other plane in the pattern that I had hit something and that he should be careful. He responded "Yeah, you hit a deer. It's just lying there... I think it's dead..."
I snapped the following pics and moseyed on down the runway to where there was already a guy named Leroy putting the deer into the back of his pickup. The airport manager was there too. He said "I was just putting the key into the lock and I heard a plane add power. Then I heard a crash, the engine sputtered, tires were screeching, and then there was nothing... silence. I went inside my office to get the truck keys and heard you guys chattering on the radio about a deer." Then he smiled and said "And that's when I called Leroy."
The deer was in surprisingly good condition. There wasn't any blood, but all it's legs were snapped and pointing every which way.
The plane cost about $30,000 to repair and was out of service until February. I was the talk of the school, but mostly because for the first few hours after it had happened, everyone who I hadn't personally spoken to thought I was dead. The rumor was that I had hit a deer, careened into a drainage ditch, and rolled the airplane over causing one of the wings to fold up and over the top of the airplane. I wasn't able to open the door so I burned to death. Pleasant. My instructor was not at the airport that morning (it was about 8am) so he also thought I was dead. He was pretty relieved when I called him.
When I first called the school to tell them what happened, they asked me if I could fly it back. I told them that it probably CAN fly, but I won't be the one flying it. The head of maintenance and the head of the flight school drove down, and the chief pilot flew another Warrior down to pick me up. When they got there, they all had looks of disbelief. The flight school head kept telling me "The most important thing for you is that you get back into a airplane and start flying." I guess they thought I'd be traumatized from the experience. I told them that I was in no way afraid of flying, and that I would gladly fly any airplane back to MLB except that one, given it's current condition. It didn't rattle me at all. Personally, I thought it was pretty cool, but I didn't tell them that. It'll take more than a freak deer strike to take me out of aviation. On the flight home, the CP said "So, do you want to fly it in, or would you rather just..." and he kind of trailed off. Of course I'll fly! It's not like I've got PTSD.
All in all, I think it was a good experience. It's amazing how fast our minds can work in an instance like that. The whole situation only lasted a few seconds, but I can't believe how quickly my mind gathered all the information it was given, all the "this happened" and "this didn't happen" and "ok, now this is happening so it must mean this" and spat out resolutions and ways to solve the problems.
They wound up taking the airplane apart, loading it onto a flatbed, and driving it back to MLB in the middle of the night, covered with a tarp.
Leroy later gave me a huge Ziploc bag full of venison that I brought to the airport one friday and grilled on the flight line. Everybody had free deer burgers that day.
A friend later suggested that I should've swapped places with the deer. Put the deer in the pilot's seat with my headset on and hoofs on the yoke, and I should've went and layed in the middle of the runaway. Oh well, hindsight's 20/20
The next few days were chock-full of FAA interviews, paperwork, and overall fun. To this day, I still remember the name of the man from the Orlando FSDO who woke me up at 7am for a phone interview. That was especially fun.
Last edited by Mitragorz; 02-03-2009 at 08:56 PM.
02-04-2009, 05:25 AM
#8
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2008
Position: The Far Side
Posts: 968
When I first saw the thread I thought I was going to see deer walking a picket line. 
And no pictures of the deer! Or Leroy!
Sounds like he's related to "Larry, Darryl, and Darryl" on Newhart.
Seriously, great story. Did anybody's insurance company try to tag you for any damages or loss of use? It does sound like the FBO was pretty nice.
One way to avoid seven a. m. calls is to not answer your phone. Other than that, how'd the FAA treat you?
And no pictures of the deer! Or Leroy!
Sounds like he's related to "Larry, Darryl, and Darryl" on Newhart.Seriously, great story. Did anybody's insurance company try to tag you for any damages or loss of use? It does sound like the FBO was pretty nice.
One way to avoid seven a. m. calls is to not answer your phone.
Other than that, how'd the FAA treat you?
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