Although I have not experienced a bird strike, I have had a VERY close call, and I learned something about how they can react to us as we get close to them in flight. My encounter was with a large buzzard. I spotted him, and kept an eye on him just in case he flew into my path. He did, but then he started to climb quickly so I figured we were fine because we would fly under him on our current path. He looked like he was close to 100 feet above us at the top of his climb. The problem was that as we got even closer, he folded his wings against his body, and went into an immediate dive. That brought him right back into our path. He went right in front of us, and then immediately below us as we passed. I would estimate we missed him by about 30 feet. If I find myself in that type of situation again, I am going to make an effort to fly around or over, but certainly not under.

Don Parsons

ES-166-FB