I hit a cormorant a few years ago at 1500' over downtown Vancouver. I remember saying to my wife, "what the hell is a cormorant doing up here?!"
Well I turned away and descended to avoid it, but clearly not enough. As I was about to pass under it, it dove. A natural defence maneuver from an animal who's normal threat is from above, but not smart enough to see the difference this day.
Prop cut it in half but remaining carcass smashed the cowl to hell and cover the windshield. I had to land blind. Had only sideways vision. I elected to stop at YPK as it was closer and had a longer runway than my home base of Langley. I was cleared straight in. I said "I can't do straight in. Prefer 30 degree approach." Which was granted. I leaned back in my seat, flew the approach looking out the side, and used my peripheral vision for an un eventful landing. Now I was stuck. Had damage to the airplane and it was a Sunday. Couldn't get a ferry permit from the Feds and even if I could I wouldn't be able to carry my wife as a passenger. Fortunately as I have a maintenance licence, I cleaned it off, noted the damage, closed the cowls and signed it off as not affecting airworthiness. Flew home and fixed the cowl there. Rear baffle also had to be re made.

I have some great photos of this incident, but it can't figure out to post them with the article. Any suggestions?

You forgot to mention that on a hot day that plane still smells like herring pate' when you wlk past it.

Can you post your pic's on Photobucket or something similar or even Facebook works for me. Once there right click the pic for image info and paste that url between the img tag in your post.

Look in our help section. There's a video that walks you through posting photos.

I had a scary bird strike in my Cessna 180 too. Shortly after lifting off the water I must have scared a group of scavenger birds feeding on some fish guts that are routinely dumped on a rock a short distance from a fishing lodge. Several turkey vultures, bald eagles and ravens suddenly took off into my flight path as I was only about 40' above the water. I tried dodging, but a bald eagle struck the left wing with quite a thud. Just happy it didn't go through the prop at full takeoff power. The plane still handled normally, but I couldn't see the wing to assess any damage. I called my wife on the cell phone and told her to report what happened and call the fishing lodge to retrieve the bird from the water. Some lodge guests were watching me takeoff and saw it happen. I continued on to my destination which was near to the floatplane base where I would have my mechanic inspect the wing. The wing was definitely dented along with two rib caps. I pounded out the dent as much as I dared and flew the plane for the rest of the float season. Had it repaired over the winter. Ouch $

Unfortunate bald eagle


Dent in wing