THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 9, 1995 TAG: 9511090358
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARE COUNTY BOMBING RANGE LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Flying south from their summer homes in Alaska and the Arctic Circle, more than 100,000 birds have cruised across this Air Force bombing range in the past five days.
Tundra swans, Canada geese, snow geese and every type of duck imaginable have soared through the airspace reserved for military training flights.
So the pilots have to stay out of the birds' way.
``We're taking significant steps with our training missions to avoid the altitudes that the birds are flying in,'' Senior Master Sgt. David Hamilton said from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro. ``We can't stop flying completely while the swans are coming over. But hitting a bird that big with an F-15 would be, to say the least, very bad.''
Normally, pilots from Seymour Johnson, Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach and other military outposts fly at altitudes of 200 to 15,000 feet when they drop practice bombs over the swampy 46,000-acre range on the Dare County mainland, between Stumpy Point and Englehard. Military maneuvers often are conducted at lower levels, Hamilton said, because ``high flights make you a sitting duck over enemy airspace.''
This week, however, pilots have been restricted to flights of 3,500 feet and above because a biologist has determined that the birds generally migrate at heights up to that level.
``If they stick to the higher altitudes, they can usually fly right over the birds,'' ornithologist Adam Kelly said Wednesday from his outpost on the Dare County bombing range. ``We've seen groups of swans as large as 100 per flock this week. Right now we're having the biggest movement of birds for the whole year. They're flying really strong through here this week.
``And when the winds shift Thursday afternoon, it will all stop.''
By setting up specially designed radar equipment near the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and counting winged creatures while wearing infrared goggles, Kelly and a two-man crew have recorded at least 20,000 swans, 20,000 geese and 80,000 ducks since Saturday.
``It's a great, phenomenal year for ducks,'' said Kelly. ``The bird flights begin about 4 p.m. and last through daybreak. That makes it even worse for the night training missions because pilots can't see the birds in the dark.''
More than 400 training missions are conducted over the Dare County Bombing Range each month.
Each year, military experts estimate, about 3,000 U.S. Air Force planes collide with birds - costing taxpayers an average of $60 million annually. At least two pilots have died in the past three years as a result of hitting birds. In 1993 alone, pilots from Seymour Johnson hit 96 birds.
Fighter planes such as F-15Es cost upwards of $50 million each.
The cost of lives in such accidents is immeasurable.
``Swans weigh 12 to 20 pounds each. They're monster-sized, the biggest birds we get in this area,'' Kelly said. ``A bird that big will almost stop an aircraft in mid-air.''
With $500,000 from the federal government, Kelly and his assistants are conducting a two-year study on the hazards of hitting birds for the U.S. Air Force. They plan to produce a map on the bombing range and adjacent Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge lands that will show pilots which birds fly at what altitudes during which times of the year. They hope their project will become a model for other airfields - and that pilots will learn to use the maps as part of their regular routine.
The final computerized model of the bird migration patterns - the first site-specific map of its kind - will be submitted to the military in May, Kelly said.
But pilots already are using - and appreciating - the effects of the biologists' work.
``That radar study has really helped us identify when and where the greatest probability of those birds being concentrated is,'' Hamilton said. ``We haven't had to cancel any flights yet. But Canada geese have stalled flights or caused us to postpone them from Seymour Johnson. Our pilots are trying to keep higher profiles over the airspace, then just dive into the target area and pull back up high.
``Birds have the potential to take an airplane right out of the sky,'' said the Air Force officer. ``Even hitting a sparrow at 500 miles per hour is a significant event. The biologists have given us altitude data to show us the exact heights we should avoid.
``There's an awful lot of effort going into avoiding these birds.'' by CNB