Hit quite a few ducks taking off and landing on Lake Hood over the years. Few through the prop and few on the wings. State even paid to have leading edge repaired once Airport put pigs on the island next to take off channel for a couple years to eat the duck and seagull eggs not sure it helped much. Air cannons, people putting pin holes in eggs in nests so they would sit there all summer with no hatches. Nothing really worked. There was a report that one of the pigs escaped the island one night and was running around Spenard causing a ruckus. Cops were called to help catch the porker Turned out it was just one of the late night Spenard bar maids got a little disoriented.

Oh, the pigs really did help a lot......they had them on Gull Island for two or three seasons, and it made a big difference in the numbers of nesting geese and ducks. They may have come back since, I dunno. Perfect habitat in any case.....except for all those dang airplanes.

I put in a lot of hours landing and taking off in some of the densest waterfowl habitat on the planet and fortunately never hit a duck. My policy was I just landed and let them get out of my way. They're more maneuverable than me anyway.

The first year the pigs were on the island, I headed down to Anchorage for some maintenance on the 185. Our maintenance base is right across the takeoff channel from Gull Island.

I knew nothing about the pigs at this point. As I descended into Anchorage airspace, Approach kicked me off to Hood Tower. I called inbound and was told to make left traffic for the west channel. An air taxi 206 had just landed, and the pilot called clear of the channel, "and, by the way, there's a pig in the channel". My ears perked up, and I'm thinking "a PIG in the channel????" Did they develop some sort of code words at LHD since I was here last? Then the controller came back with "Which pig was it?" Now I'm really paying attention. The pilot responded with "I don't know which one it is." Tower comes right back with "Can you describe the pig?". Almost instantly, a female voice came on the frequency with: "It looks just like my ex husband." Now, all this conversation was conducted in a totally calm and "no big deal" manner and tone.

The conversation kind of went downhill from there and Hood Tower called for discipline on the freq.

I landed, went into our shop and said "What the hell is this about pigs in the channel?" They explained that the airport had put three weaner pigs on the island for the summer to eat birds eggs. They installed an electric fence around the island as well to keep the pigs from swimming, but on warm days, the porkers sometimes went for a swim anyways. They were named Larry, Curly and Moe, and were very different in color and markings. The Tower wanted to know which one was in the channel, because Airport Security was going to get in their rescue boat and go looking for the violator, and get him back on the island.

I've forgotten now what those pigs weighed at the end of the season, but they were huge compared to the weights when they were put on the island.

MTV

At least she was still alive and not the result of a Spenard divorce.
Ron

Speaking of Bird Strikes: https://www.adn.com/article/20160504/nt ... bald-eagle

Flew out of Lake Hood to go on a fishing trip a couple of times 15 or so years ago. Pigs were there one year, but not the other. They looked quite content on their little island. Got lucky enough to hit a hawk last summer. Through the center of the prop, over the cockpit pretty much intact. Knocked the spinner off which turns out hit the prop, cupped around it and rode it all the way to the end of the prop. We could see the red paint the whole way. Spinner ended up hitting the bottom of the right wing. No damage except for the spinner and the brown die on the seat. According to fshaw I only said F#*%ing hawk once on the radio. fshaw will have to tell the story about hitting the geese in the same plane.

Pete

I hit something going into a village once, whatever it was hit the leading edge of the left flap on the 206 and bent it to the extent that it would not retract. The funny thing was I didn't hear, see or feel it hitting the plane. Had to be a gull or bigger.

My very first summer in Kotz I was flying a load of bypass mail up to Point Hope. Typical summer wx, and the ceilings and vis were crappy in fog and low clouds, so I just planned on hugging the coast all the way up. A couple hundred AGL was gonna be fine.

That worked well until I got northwest of Kivalina at Chariot, and instead of climbing up into the muck to go up and over Cape Thompson in IMC for a few minutes before dropping down onto the lagoons shy of Point Hope, I angled out over the water, keeping my right wingtip a few feet off the cliff face. That was a great plan for a few seconds, but then holy shit, what a huge tactical error.

Flying along 50 feet away from sheer rock cliffs at 125 kts, with maybe five second's worth of forward visibility is not a real smart place to be during bird nesting/hatching season. It was like the black and white WWII movies of bombers evading flack.

Black dots by the dozens, getting huge as they streaked towards the windshield, and my head, and then whizzing by above, below, and to the side of me. Some even passing between the doors and the wing struts. I was twisting and turning as fast as I could, trying to react to the birds coming at me, and trying to make that poor old Sled aerobatic in roll rate.

Up we went, and I don't think my knees stopped shaking until I was about 1,500 AGL in the clouds. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and once at Point Hope I unpuckered my ass from the seat. got out and checked my airplane. I figured I had to have hit something, but nary a dent. Not even a feather or two, or even any bird shit. The Kotz rookie gods were smiling on me that day.

Never again, and even in the dead of winter I stayed far away from those rocks.

Gump

I didn't have a bird strike until I'd returned to Laramie after getting out of the USAF in Anchorage. I hit a Mallard in a 182, which hit the left gear strut. It dented the fairing over the tubular strut and left blood, feathers, and assorted duck ick on the empennage and in the crevices of the horizontal stabilizer. The sound when it hit was much like a car hitting a big pothole.

But my favorite bird story was in Alaska, on my long student solo cross country. It was the typical 3 leg flight in a 150, from Elmendorf to Kenai to Homer and back to Elmendorf. On the last leg, I was motoring along at a stately 90 mph or so, enjoying the scenery and dodging a rain storm when I looked back over my left shoulder and saw a small flock of geese, trying to form up on the 150. So I slowed down more to let them catch up, and they flew there for a little while--seemed like minutes, but probably only seconds, because even slowing made the 150 much faster than normal cruise for the geese. And of course, I didn't have a camera!

Cary

Never again, and even in the dead of winter I stayed far away from those rocks.

Gump

Ha Ha, Thanks, just had a flashback moment The birds didn't come out in anywhere near that volume, more like getting sniped at. Was trying to pull a similar stunt sneaking around point Darby to get home from Elim. Since going into the clouds wasn't an option, just sweated, maneuvered, cussed waited for the next one. After that bit of fun, I just tried to fly further from the rocks.

Chris

A few years ago, the wife and I were on a two week camping trip around Idaho. We were coming into Elk City from the north. About 30nm out, there was a large THUMP and the whole airframe shook. It scared the crap out of us. We couldn't see any damage, so I gingerly began moving the controls to make sure they were free. All was good as far as I could tell, but given the intensity of the impact, I was sure the plane was damaged. We continued inbound to EC. I was really glad to be landing so we would be safe and could see what the damage was. Just as we were touching down, 4 deer ran onto the runway. Full power and we lifted off just in time to clear them on an upslope runway and with full flaps and still believing the plane was damaged. We were headed into rising terrain, so eased the flaps back and came around for an uneventful landing, but so glad to be on the ground.

Looking the plane over, we didn't find any damage or goo or anything to indicate we hit something. The only thing I can come up with is that a large bird hit a Bushwheel.

Last week as I was coming in on short final I heard a horrendous bang like somebody smacked the cowling with a baseball bat. Gave it a quick once over back at the hanger, but didn't see any damage. Went out yesterday and found a nickel sized dent in the intake cowling, and the baffle all bent and cracked. Still can't figure what I hit...no guts or feathers. Stray bullet?

My first duck was on a spray run at 3 feet. It hit the right leading edge. Bonnnnggggg , sounded like a barrel. Just a small dent though. The second duck was on another spray run, hit lower cowl but pounded out the dent with rubber hammer. Even though I called for med evac on both birds they didn't make it.

So I was out in the 172 tonight, getting in some hold practice, and ran the RNAV approach for a local airport to buy cheap gas. I land, and as I rolling out, I see something that looks like a black plastic bag on the runway... but its moving... wtf... it was dusk, and the sun was in my eyes. It was two turkeys fucking in the middle of the runway.

I would've snapped a picture, but I was busy doing some pilot stuff at the time..