Re: Birdstrikes !

[dmp@TmedBSD.MCG.EDU]

> From:          Jeff Barnes <jcbarnes@ibm.net>

> What's that stuff they sandwich between our car windshields?  Would a
> layer of that super-plastic or some such on inside of our windshield
> markedly increase odds for survival against bird strike?  Or even
> aluminum door screening: it doesn't block vision when eyes are focused

Metal screening of any kind would either obscure vision or wouldn't 
be strong enough to do any good.

I'm not sure even the streachy plastic they use inside car 
windshields would do any good. There have been numerous cases of 
people going through windshields, even though most of the force is 
absorbed by the dash/steering wheel and speeds are often much less than 
60 MPH at impact. Could a car windshield stop an five pound bird 
hitting at 200 MPH?

I don't remember the details of your strike, but did the windshield 
shatter? If it didn't then it did protect you against the bird. (I 
can't help that the plexi flexed enough to seperate from the fusalage 
and create a bird strainer. :) Maybe better bond between the 
windshield and the fusalage?

Fortunately for us, the Velocity windshield slopes enough that a lot 
of the force of impact gets vectored upwards. I suspect on a SQ2000 
it'd be BONG!! - 'What the heck was that?' and on a Cessna they'd be
removing imbedded bird from the _back_ of your seat.

---
David Parrish


> beyond it.  I'll getter over the blood & guts: it's the plexiglass,
> goose bones, or mostly whole 5-10 pound sack at a residual 40-80kts I
> want to avoid.  
> 
> Plane might be fine but I might be blind or knocked out. 
> 
>  I went to SNF with a recovering eye scratch and was thinking how hard
> it is to see out one eye when the other is closed shut in pain, and
> worse yet, how hard to see at all when both are shut (duh).  And I don't
> like wearing a patch if I don't have to. 
> 
> Any thoughts ?
> 
> Jeff Barnes
> XL-RG N411JB  staying up too late and getting goofy
> 
>