Seems a bit Costa Concordia…..

There are old pilots,

There are bold pilots,

There are few old bold pilots.

Update from the Spanish Air Force:

quote:

Many of you have been asking us, so in this thread, we’ll tell you what happened during the Gijón air festival.

As you have seen, one of our F-18 fighters performed an evasive maneuver upon detecting a flock of birds in its path. This action is part of the standard protocol to preserve both the pilot’s safety and the public’s security.

Our aviators are trained to react in milliseconds to any unforeseen event. In this case, the pilot acted with exemplary speed and professionalism, avoiding a possible collision without compromising the exhibition.

Safety is, and will continue to be, our top priority at every air show. Thank you to all attendees for your enthusiasm and trust. Let’s keep flying together!”

https://x.com/ejercitoaire/sta...849926852034974?s=46

Did the pilot return for another fly over or did he return to the base airport.. ?????...................... drill sgt.

Basic Flying Rules:
1. Try to stay in the middle of the air.
2. Do not go near the edges of it.
3. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, and interstellar space.
It is much more difficult to fly there
.

As posted by PA Sig, he was avoiding a flick of birds:

https://www.twz.com/air/spanis...during-beach-airshow

Yea whatever. He stalled that jet. If it comes down to avoiding some birds or stalling at extremely low altitude over a large crowd, well I’ll let you guys decide. He chose poorly.

That is a very forgiving aircraft.

I read somewhere that one engine ingested a bird, and you can see a puff of smoke at one point as he is going down. Great save by the pilot.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
Basic Flying Rules:
1. Try to stay in the middle of the air.
2. Do not go near the edges of it.
3. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, and interstellar space.
It is much more difficult to fly there
.

I would immediately send that pilot to "top gun" as an instructor pilot. He did what had to be done when it had to be done.

I would also install immediately titanium screen wire inlet barriers on all jets that fly near birds. Wait, birds are in the air, jets are in the air...I guess that means all jets get the screens.

I think the error this maverick made was going below the hard deck. Probably not the first time.

quote:

I think the error this maverick made was going below the hard deck. Probably not the first time.

Did anyone spill their coffee?

Somewhat of a thread drift ,but how are there not many bird strikes every day with millions of birds and multi thousands of jet aircraft flying in the skies?

quote:

Originally posted by jgerge222:
Somewhat of a thread drift ,but how are there not many bird strikes every day with millions of birds and multi thousands of jet aircraft flying in the skies?

Just assumption, maybe birds learn to stay away from the area [airports] where noisy metal birds fly.
At least where it isn't along some waterway where they nest.

quote:

Originally posted by jgerge222:
Somewhat of a thread drift ,but how are there not many bird strikes every day with millions of birds and multi thousands of jet aircraft flying in the skies?

There are quite a few bird strikes every day. Jets seem much more prone to it than slower aircraft such as turboprops, though I had numerous bird strikes back in my turboprop days.

I've never had disabling damage from a bird strike, even with evidence on the engine fan blades. We had a pair of medium size birds hit, one on each windshield, just at rotation (lifting off), which did no damage. We hit at least a dozen ducks at night on approach in a turboprop, with no damage including to the prop blades. Over the years, almost all strikes were to the wing leading edges and the nose area, with a few to 5he landing gear.

Fighter jets have lower bypass engines than passenger jets, which means more of the bird will go through the engine internals than on a passenger jet, so I wouldn't presume a fighter is as resistant to serious engine damage. Also, in general, fighters fly a lot faster at lower altitudes than airliners (not always respecting the 250 knot speed limit below 10,000 feet), which makes bird strikes more dangerous. I would not make a maneuver other than initiate a climb were I at a low altitude and saw birds.

Down low in level flight or descending it is virtually impossible to see birds before impact. If there is a flock, you might see the ones above you, but not those at your altitude or below.

I had a bird strike (pelican) in a C-182 at low level, 200' altitude, just offshore. It hit the prop. I was abeam the St. Augustine FL airport, did not take the time to change to tower frequency, just took a good look to make sure that I was not cutting anyone off and I landed straight in.

Changed to tower frequency once I pulled off the runway onto a taxiway, tower controller started to chew me out for failure to communicate. I 'splained what had happened, he said "OK, no problem" and directed me to a maintenance facility.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I had a bird strike (pelican) in a C-182 at low level, 200' altitude, just offshore. It hit the prop. I was abeam the St. Augustine FL airport, did not take the time to change to tower frequency, just took a good look to make sure that I was not cutting anyone off and I landed straight in.

Changed to tower frequency once I pulled off the runway onto a taxiway, tower controller started to chew me out for failure to communicate. I 'splained what had happened, he said "OK, no problem" and directed me to a maintenance facility.

A Pelican is a big and heavy bird, you got really lucky!

V-Tail: "I was aviatin' and navigatin', no time left for communicatin'!"

"There I was..."