Pilot Keith Baird was flying his Cessna 210 with a new video camera on board for the first time, just after Christmas, when a Canada goose crashed through the windscreen, and he caught it on camera. Baird said he had just taken off from Brookeridge Airpark in Downers Grove, Ill., on Dec. 28 with one passenger, when he saw four geese. A small one, weighing just two pounds or so, crashed through the windscreen. Baird was smeared with blood and feathers, but said he quickly determined that the blood was from the bird and he was unhurt. He told himself to “aviate, aviate, aviate.” He checked that the prop wasn’t vibrating and the engine power was good, climbed to pattern altitude, checked that his passenger was OK, and came around to land safely.
Baird posted the video online this week, and told a local reporter that he felt very lucky. “A few degrees, a few inches off one way or the other, we would have had a different outcome,” he said. He credited his pilot training with helping him to cope safely with the experience. “You over-learn this,” he said. “Aviate, navigate, communicate. And when you overlearn it, it’s amazing, it was there instantly in my head when this happened, and the training really paid off.”
