Back in the mid 80's during the Controllers's strike I was scud running on my way out to west Texas to deliver a new Mooney 201. I was cruising along at about 135-140 Kts at 1200 agl when I came on a group of buzzards about 150' above me. One did a perfect split S and hit about 1/3 the way out on the leading edge of the right wing and outside the prop arc. The impact sounded like I had been hit by flack, there was remarkably little shudder felt and almost no adverse yaw. Since I had just passed over a small airport about 5 miles back I did a slow 180 and headed back. On the ground the hole in the leading edge was about 9" wide and ragged as hell. I called an IA and told him of the problem , I could see no evidence of a fuel leak or of spar damage. He asked how it flew after the strike and I had to confess I really couldn't tell much difference at slow speed. He suggested I find some cardboard and duct tape and cover the hole over and limp back in which is what I did. The tape and cardboard held up quite well at the 100 kts I flew back at. Inspection of the wing the next day confirmed there was no damage to the spar but there were buzzard guts and feathers blown all the way out to the wing tip. It was a helluva mess. It is remarkable how much you can mess up the aerodynamics of a wing and not have any substantial deterioration of handling. I have no illusion that had the bird come through the windshield that things would have been far different. Dave
__________________________________________________________________________ ______ To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>
