Module 2.3 The Operating Environment and Aircraft Performance

 

               The topic of this week's blog post is the operating environment and the performance of the aircraft. Because humans and birds now share the same airspace, I'll be talking about bird strike today. Nowadays, it is fairly common, and it can pose a significant threat to the safety of aircraft. It is more likely that smaller aircrafts, particularly those equipped with jet engines, will sustain significant structural damage. It doesn't matter how severe a bird strike is because as mechanics, we perform one-time special inspections such as borescopes, diving the intake, and inspecting the propeller, among other things. According to aircraft owners and pilots association website (n.d.) The first pilot to ever be involved in a bird strike is believed to have been Orville Wright in 1908 and the first recorded fatality result dates all the way back 1912. Despite the rise of numbers of bird strike reports, many collisions still go unreported and never find their way to FAA database, the estimate claims to be 60% (AOAP, 2021).

              Large birds and flocks of smaller birds can both pose a threat to planes, either by crashing into the windscreen, getting struck on the aircraft structure and surfaces or being sucked into the engines, depending on their size. Not only does this result in significant damage to the plane, but it can also result in hazardous and unsafe flying conditions if critical damage occurs. As a result, many airports have wildlife control initiatives in place to minimize bird-aircraft interaction. Such modifying their habitat surrounding an airport by eliminating its food sources; modifying bird’s behavior by using all types of sounds; and learning to work with the bird by utilizing flight path and scheduling. These are just one of the few things to prevent bird strike.

References:

Retrieved from https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/active-pilots/safety-and-technique/bird-and-wildlife-strikes

Retrieved from https://www.aopa.org/-/media/files/aopa/home/pilot-resources/safety-and-proficiency/bird-and-wildlife-strikes/sb11.pdf?la=en&hash=8DDBAE75C364B5D5831CF1F283ADF062