I hope this brief story can help a few readers if a penetrating bird strike happens to them in a “helicopter vs. bird challenge”. Especially item #2 below. While flying a U.S. DOJ Government Bell 407 a few years ago during a routine surveillance at ~5,000 AGL in the Brenham, TX area, I was avoiding small flocks of Inca Doves that were travelling south bound, very routine flight. Aerial observer in the aft seats had pointed out a large tower on the VOX ICS system as we descended to support a Texas DPS/DEA ground operation.
I avoided some other small birds, except one. That one bird went every way that I went and then, “Bang”. (The Bell 407 had standard factory plexiglass, not a polycarbonate windscreen). The Inca Dove broke through the right windscreen and directly hit my clear visor; my visor was broken in half and my face lacerated in a few areas. I was wearing eyeglasses. The impact was explosive, so much so that an experienced pilot, seated in the aft, utilizing the on-board camera system, initially thought we had hit the tower. The tower that he had pointed out earlier during the routine descent. Most of the front right windscreen broke into pieces and was now circling in a maelstrom through the cockpit and backseat area since we hit the bird at ~ 80 KIAS. Initially communication was impossible due to the VOX ICS being overwhelmed by the relative wind.
Corrective action:
- Slowed down to about 25-30 KIAS, continued the descent
- Pushed a great deal of right pedal to accomplish aggressive left slip helicopter – our problems went away!
- Switched from VOX to ICS and explained to pilot/observer what happened.
- Flew the left side slip straight & level and landed at Brenham airport and a new window was installed.
- Our U.S. DOJ organization switched all 407s to polycarbonate windscreens with a net weight impact of + 20 lbs.
Lastly, I hope items #2 and #3 can help a pilot in the future, it stopped all my cockpit mayhem instantly.
