[krzy]

I thought I would share this story with you..

I drive to work via a 4 lane highway, speed limit is 65 mph. This morning, It was a little before 7am and still somewhat dark outside. I made it through the bulk of the commuter traffic in the area and things were speeding up as cars were spreading out. Everything was calm, I was drinking my coffee and listening to a mellow song on the radio. I wasn't concentrating on anything really, just enjoying my morning ride to work.

I took a sip of coffee. As I reached to set the cup of coffee down, BOOM! The loudest freaking boom I've heard in a long time. It was loud enough that the sound was able to resonate through my body. I don't think I even jumped, since it stunned me more than scared me. A couple seconds later, I regained awareness of what was going on. There were two smears on my windshield directly in front of my face. Needless to say, I was puzzled. I checked to see if the engine was running, checked the glass for cracks, did a quick brake check to make sure I could stop if I needed to. Verified there was no wobble in the steering wheel, etc. I couldn't find anything wrong other than the two little smears on the windshield. I thought maybe someone threw a 2x4 onto the freeway since there were no cars in front of me close enough to have dropped something. I continued to work and arrived about 10 minutes later. The rest of the ride left me recovering from the noise and puzzled about what happened.

Upon arriving to work, I got out of the car and examined the windshield. What I found was interesting. Along with the two smears, about 11 inches of the rubber lip at the top of the windshield had been tucked back behind the top of the windshield. Tucked between the top of the windshield and the rubber lip was what appeared to be down (like from a comforter). I had some kind of bird! WTF kind of bird splats wide enough to push ELEVEN inches of rubber back like that? The seal is very tight and I was unable to pull it back out with my fingers. There are no scratches in the surrounding paint or glass. Just the messed up seal.

I decided to leave it as is since one of the feathers could probably be identified by someone that knew birds better than I do. A little while later, a coworker and I walked out to the parking lot to do a closer inspection. He determined that the feather was from a hawk. The hawk had flown into my windshield at over 65mph directly in front of my face and the windshield survived.

I managed to use an ice pick to untuck the lip and place it back over the glass but the whole ordeal left a small crease in the rubber and the seal hadn't settled back down on top of the glass yet. I'm guessing after a warm day it should be fine.

I'm still not quite ready to think about what would have happened if he had gone through the windshield.

So after the whole ordeal, feeling bad about the bird, recovering from the noise, bummed about the crease in my trim, etc. I noticed that the bird did manage to get the last laugh. Above the passenger seat headrest on the roof glass was his last splatter. The bird had managed to make a last stand before his transition from a high flying bird of prey to road kill.

 

[Kwiksilver]

wow. what are the chances? and a hawk? definately weird.

but also

 

[thunder sloth]

That's one gnarly mosquito.

 

[cad455]

i remember seeing some thread on another forum where a bird hit the part where the windshield meets the roof, and it was enough force to send feathers and guts into the interior of the car.

i don't think i've taken any birds. i once swerved for a crane and almost ended up in a ditch.

 

[basilisk4]

That's weird, sad, and weird. Sorry to hear about it, but glad that you and your car are okay.

 

[Azrael]

I work on Airplanes, and we have birdstrikes all the time. We wipe up all the remains off the aircraft and send it in to the birdstrike identification center in The Smithsonian. They can do genetic analysis on the remains to determine what kind of bird it is. The Air Force does all this to better understand the nature of patterns of birds, to avoid them. You should see what a blue jay can do to a radome at 300 knots.

 

[iGod]

i hit the second of two birds in a chase going to work once. driving a '72 ford van. a crow was chasing a pigeon, the pigeon cleared my windshield in time, the crow didnt. excellent evasive move by the pigeon, i think.

 

[cad455]

Originally posted by Azrael@Dec 23 2004, 09:51 AM
I work on Airplanes, and we have birdstrikes all the time. We wipe up all the remains off the aircraft and send it in to the birdstrike identification center in The Smithsonian. They can do genetic analysis on the remains to determine what kind of bird it is. The Air Force does all this to better understand the nature of patterns of birds, to avoid them. You should see what a blue jay can do to a radome at 300 knots.

perhaps you've seen the episode of "myth busters" where they use a pressurized cannon to launch chickens from the grocery store at the cessna?

if you haven't you should, considering your trade. it's a riot.

 

[Azrael]

I'll have to check it out.

 

[iGod]

yeah, that was good sh!t.

 

[lo bux racer]

The frozen chickens or the thawed ones? I remember seeing a video of an F-111 birdstrike simulation (with the cannon), except they used a frozen solid turkey. Needless to say the canopy suffered heavily. The likelihood of a frozen bird strike in the real world is pretty small.

 

[Azrael]

It rains butterballs every march here. Gotta watch out for it.

 

[sciontc_mich]

hahahahahahah