Actually, flying and fighting without any added distractions in AH is hard enough.
I was flying into CWA (Central Wisconsin Airport - Wausau) on a Canadair Regional jet for business when about 15 minutes out I heard a BANG. My first thought was that it was the gear doors opening, although a little loud. 'cept, no gear air buffet noise.
Okay, fine. A couple minutes later I hear the familiar gear door and turb noise. Then the captain gets on the com a minute or so later and says "Don't be alarmed if you see some fire vehicles as we land. We hit a bird but the gear came down okay. We'll be making an emergency landing".
Wonderful.
Well, we touched down and came to a quick stop, staying right there in the middle of the runway. Captain gets on again and now says we hit a FLOCK of birds and have to wait for a tow due to no hydraulics to steer.
Kudos to the Cap for a nice job. I frigure the bird(s) hit took out some hydraulics early due to his statement "but the gear came down". Next to the "dent" on the left side of the A/C was a 6" gash with Hydraulic fluid steaks. To the right of the nose cone was a lone feather sticking out. You can see it between the plane and the cone in the pic.
We deplaned down the stairs and a few passengers were at the nose. I went around and snapped the pic (sorry, cell phone cam quality). I asked if it was geese and a ground crew guy said "No" and pointed. There on the ground was one sorry-assed mangled duck. I wanted to get a pic of that, too, but they were shooing us off. (ducks flying at at least 2k in the dark???? - revoke their accounts!)
Thank God none were engine ingested and the gear was working. Although those Spitty and Corsair "no-gear" landings in AH are no biggy ...
In honor of the bird I went to the bar next to my hotel and had 2 shots of Wild Turkey ... and many beers.
