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The Ornithological Situation Of Military Airfield In Deblin In The Context Of Bird Strikes, Janusz Cwiklak, Marek Grzegorzewski, Stefan Krop, Ignacy Kitowski, Maria Curie-Skłodowska, Grzegorz Grzywaczewski

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

The problem of collisions of aircraft, especially military jets, with birds in Poland was neglected by years in spite of some serious incidences with casualties. Moreover, the number of methods that were used to reduce such crashes, still seems inadequate. We started the first project in Poland devoted to study on bird strikes on military airfields. The main goal of this project is to work out any possible methods to prevent aircraft, in the aspect of threats, concerning the safety of flights, from all kinds of birds, those which have breeding-grounds and those which migrate trough the area of military …

Sms And Bird/Wildlife Management Programs, Nicholas Carter, Samuel Hautequest Cardoso

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

As ICAO implements the new SMS (Safety Management Systems) requirements for all international airports with its amended Annex 14 and the FAA moves to a more formally delineated requirement to implement SMS at all Part 139 airports, airport managers will soon have to face the development of full-fledged SMS programs for their airports. As an integral part of an airfield’s SMS, bird and wildlife management will also need to be incorporated into the SMS. With a dearth of literature on SMS and wildlife management and without an abundance of long-term experience at North American airfields, airport managers will not have …

Capture, Color-Marking And Translocation Of Resident And Non-Resident Red-Tailed Hawks (Buteo Jamaicensis) At Portland International Airport 1999-2007: Overview And Evaluation Of An Innovative Program, Carol E. Hallett, Nick Atwell

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

Pacific Habitat Services began trapping, color marking and translocation of Red-tailed Hawks at Portland International Airport (PDX) in October 1999 in response to a high number of red-tail bird strikes. Initially, all red-tails were targeted for capture and translocation. Subsequent observations of returning birds led to the current practice of identifying and leaving resident adults and focused trapping efforts on non-resident, transient and migratory hawks. PDX strike data strongly supports the assumption that resident adults are less likely to be struck than non-residents. The data also suggests that residents with more experience are less likely to be struck than those …

Would You Please Move? Translocation Of Immature Bald Eagles To Reduce Bird Strike Risk, Alan Schumacher, Brian Washburn, John P. Hart

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

Though once endangered, bald eagle populations in the lower 48 States has increased considerably in recent years. Bald eagles far exceed the airworthiness standards for airframes, windshields, and engines set by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); consequently this species poses a high risk of damage to aircraft and passenger safety when eagle-aircraft collisions occur. Given the exponential growth of bald eagle populations in the United States, the risk of bald eagle-aircraft collisions is an increasing problem for airports. Concurrently, there is widespread public interest in eagles with a strong concern that eagle populations be protected. Effective, publically accepted methods to …

Establishment Of Tall Fescue Cultivars On The Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point Airfield, Keri Yankus, Michael Begier, Brian E. Washburn

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

Wildlife-aircraft collisions (wildlife strikes) cause serious safety hazards to aircraft and their occupants. Habitat management is an important component of an integrated approach for reducing wildlife use of airports. Species composition of airfield plant communities influences the degree of attractiveness to wildlife. Recent research has shown that grazing Canada geese do not consume endophyte-infected tall fescue, suggesting endophyte-infected tall fescues (Festuca arundinacea) might be favorable turfgrass varieties to use in reseeding and vegetation renovation projects on airfields. As part of a larger study, we conducted an experiment to determine if selected turf-type tall fescue cultivars would establish on …

A Practical And Cost Effective Approach To Airport Wildlife Management In The Context Of Local Landuse: Two Australian Case Studies, Phil Shaw

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

The average strike rates at Australian airports are 4.5, 6 and 0.9 per 10,000 movements for different category airports. These rates reflect the diversity and density of Australian avifauna as well as the littoral distribution of most of our major airports. In the past, isolated and piecemeal management approaches such as fixed position scare devices and dispersal by poorly trained and equipped patrols were ineffective at managing strike risk. Here we describe a practical, cost effective and integrated approach that commences with audit, habitat review and field surveys and is followed by risk assessment and mitigation strategies that are reviewed …

Assessing Bird-Aircraft Strike Hazard (Bash) Risk Associated With Breeding And Migrating Osprey, Brian E. Washburn, Thomas Olexa, Brian Dorr

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

The osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is one of the most widely distributed and well studied bird species of the Northern Hemisphere; however, little is known about their potential impacts to military flight operations. A Department of Defense, Legacy Natural Resources Program-funded multi-agency research project examining the strike-risk posed by breeding and migrating Osprey was initiated in 2006. During the 2006 and 2007 nesting seasons, a total of 13 adult Osprey were live-captured, fitted with GPS-capable satellite transmitters, and released from selected nest locations near Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, in the Mid- Atlantic Chesapeake Bay Region. We monitored satellite-tagged …

The Murray State News, Welcome, August 1, 2008, The Murray State News

Murray State University Collection

No abstract provided.

Computing Degrees Of Subsethood And Similarity For Interval-Valued Fuzzy Sets: Fast Algorithms, Hung T. Nguyen, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

We propose fast algorithms for computing degrees of subsethood and similarity for interval-valued fuzzy sets.

Choquet Integrals And Owa Criteria As A Natural (And Optimal) Next Step After Linear Aggregation: A New General Justification, Francois Modave, Martine Ceberio, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In multi-criteria decision making, it is necessary to aggregate (combine) utility values corresponding to several criteria (parameters). The simplest way to combine these values is to use linear aggregation. In many practical situations, however, linear aggregation does not fully adequately describe the actual decision making process, so non-linear aggregation is needed.

From the purely mathematical viewpoint, the next natural step after linear functions is the use of quadratic functions. However, in decision making, a different type of non-linearities are usually more adequate than quadratic ones: non-linearities like OWA or Choquet integral that use min and max in addition to linear …

Intermediate Degrees Are Needed For The World To Be Cognizable: Towards A New Justification For Fuzzy Logic Ideas, Hung T. Nguyen, Vladik Kreinovich, J. Esteban Gamez, Francois Modave, Olga Kosheleva

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Most traditional examples of fuzziness come from the analysis of commonsense reasoning. When we reason, we use words from natural language like "young", "well". In many practical situations, these words do not have a precise true-or-false meaning, they are fuzzy. One may therefore be left with an impression that fuzziness is a subjective characteristic, it is caused by the specific way our brains work.

However, the fact that that we are the result of billions of years of successful adjusting-to-the-environment evolution makes us conclude that everything about us humans is not accidental. In particular, the way we reason is not …

Training For Airport Wildlife Control Personnel: The Ibsc Recommendation, Paul Eschenfelder, Anastasios Anagnostopoulos

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

ICAO Annex 14, chapter 9.4, sets as a worldwide standard the control of airport wildlife hazards by ‘competent’ airport personnel. Unfortunately ICAO provides no guidance as to what constitutes competence or properly trained personnel. The International Birdstrike Committee sought to develop a ‘best practice’ for the training of airport wildlife control personnel by forming a Working Group to develop a training recommendation. Surprisingly the Working Group found almost no state guidelines worldwide and little in the way of informal training guidelines among ICAO states reviewed. Using input from various national regulatory agencies, informal programs and the working group’s wildlife control …

Organizational Efforts In Aviation Wildlife Mitigation – University Story, Paul Eschenfelder, Archie Dickey

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

Wildlife strikes to aircraft in the USA have increased to over 35,000 per year, costing airlines millions of dollars in damage and general aviation/corporate aviation the lives of seven people in the last year. While various government programs are in place, the number and seriousness of bird strikes is not declining. Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, an accredited university which also offers flight training, has originated seven initiatives which serve to educate the aviation community regarding wildlife hazards, document the hazard, supplement the government’s efforts and reach out to the aviation community. These initiatives are fairly low cost and, for the …

The Bird Strike Risk, To Be Countered Or Contained?, Arie Dekker

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

Chronologically bird strike prevention has gone through a number of phases. In the beginning of aviation bird strikes were relatively rare and considered unavoidable. With the introduction of faster jet engines, the problem became more prominent and birds were scared away from the runway environment. It was soon recognized that these re-active, corrective measures had to be accompanied by a pro-active, preventive approach in the form of habitat management. Nowadays, bird strike prevention is part of legislation, auditing and Safety Management Systems. It is however, still characterized to a great extend by measures that counter the problem instead of containing …

Personal Liability In The Aftermath Of Birdstrikes: A Costly Consideration, Larry A. Dale

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

Each year, the aviation industry is faced with the potential for extensive loss of life and property due to bird strikes. Indeed, the frequency and devastating consequences of bird strike activity dictate that these occurrences remain in the forefront of every airport’s wildlife management plan. Today’s airport manager, tasked with the ultimate responsibility for safe, secure and efficient operation of the airport, must also address the weighty issue of liability. Organizational and personal liability are significant threats that cannot be overlooked. Today’s court system bears witness of airport managers being held responsible and sued personally for injuries and death as …

The Geese Of Queens: Movement And Management Of Canada Geese In Relation To New York City Airports, Scott E. Clemons, Allen Gosser, Martin Lowney

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

Non-migratory Canada goose (Branta canadensis) populations are increasing and pose a significant threat to civil aviation as aircraft components and engines are not built to withstand the strike of a bird weighing in excess of 4 kg. Since 1995, 10 aircraft have incurred substantial damage after striking Canada geese while landing or departing from LaGuardia (LGA) or John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airports, New York City. As part of a research program to determine the origin of geese that threaten aircraft in New York City, we neck-collared 300 Canada geese within 8 km of either the JFK or LGA …

Let’S Talk Turkey: Integrating Traditional Wildlife Management Techniques To Reduce Hazards At Airports, Christopher Bowse

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

Similar to many populations of large North American bird species, wild turkey populations have rebounded largely due to conservation efforts. Historically, reports of turkey – aircraft strikes are infrequent; however, in the last five years reported turkey/ aircraft strikes have risen by 47%. FAA National Wildlife Strike Database figures indicate 36 aircraft-turkey collisions in the past 16 years (1991 to 2006). Airport managers are seeking solutions to mitigate the threat to aviation safety that turkeys pose. Turkeys have become a highly sought game bird and the use of depredation to mitigate turkey problems at airports; while legal, could be viewed …

Quantifying Vulture Activity At Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, Nc, Michael L. Avery, John S. Humphrey, Rudolph Daughtery, Michael Milleson

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

Vultures represent a serious hazard to military and civilian aircraft throughout much of the USA. According to the Breeding Bird Survey, populations of black vultures (Coragyps atratus) and turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) in South Carolina are growing exponentially. Safety concerns in light of burgeoning vulture populations prompted the initiation of a 2-year study of vulture movements and activities at the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) in Beaufort, SC. We trapped and outfitted turkey vultures and black vultures with solar powered GPS satellite transmitters. Each hour the location, altitude, and speed of each transmittered bird were recorded. …

Challenges, Circumstances And Considerations For Bird And Wildlife Abatement And The Importance Of Empirical And Historical Data At Central Florida Airports, Johnny Metcalf, George Speake

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

The central Florida region is home to a variety of birds and wildlife. Most bird species occurring in the eastern United States winter in, or migrate through, Florida. Ample rainfall, abundant lakes, ponds and marshes provide productive aquatic habitats for a variety of birds, reptiles and mammals. Airport operators are faced with a diversity of wildlife species and situations capable of adversely impacting aviation operations. Constant surveillance, dispersals, removals capture relocations, habitat and ecological modifications are the primary tools for addressing these issues. Area development has increased significantly in recent years making the open expanses of the airfield and unimproved …

The Bird Hazard Report As A Safety Tool, Flávio Antonio Coimbra Mendonça

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

According to Cleary and Dolbeer (Wildlife hazards at airports, 2005), before solving a problem, it must be understood. A mandatory and first step toward understanding and solving the complex problem of collisions between aircrafts and birds is the collection and analysis of bird hazards. Therein lies the bird hazard report, as an important document that feeds the safety management system. Safety is typically managed from a systemic perspective in which the accident results from a chain of events. Despite the large amount of knowledge that exists about the dynamics of aircraft accidents, the investigation processes still identify in …

The Us Air Force (Usaf) Smr (Small Radar Program): An Overview And Status Report On The Operational Use Of Dedicated Avian Radar Systems At Usaf Airfields And Ranges, Eugene Leboeuf, Ted Wilkens, Ronald Merritt

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

Aircraft-bird strikes present a significant safety hazard to military aviation. The USAF began researching small mobile radars (SMRs) in the late-1980’s to provide close-in detection and tracking of hazardous bird activity on and around military airfields. Lessons learned from early field studies validated the ability of marine radar to detect and track birds, but identified requirements to automate detection and tracking for operational use. The first airfield to deploy a SMR for real-time bird detection for air traffic control was the Royal Air Force (RAF) base Kinloss in Scotland which installed a Geo-Marine MARS unit in 2002. Validation of the …

The Ability Of Avian Radars To Track Near Miss Bird Strike Events: A Missing Informational Link, Matthew Klope, Michael J. Begier, Timothy J. Nohara

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

The management of problem wildlife within the airfield environment is a difficult job and today’s biologists require as much information as possible. Bird censuses and actual strike events provide a good picture, but there is a valuable data set out there that has been overlooked, until now. Recent advances in commercially available, digital avian tracking radars have for the first time enabled biologists to track and evaluate near-miss events to increase the safety margin for our pilots and crew. As a part of the Department of Defense, Environmental Securities Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) Project: Integration and Validation of Avian Radars, …

Deployment And Assessment Of Avian Radars, Edwin Herricks, Elizabeth Woodworth, Ryan King

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

As part of a multiple year Federal Aviation Administration research program in Airport Safety (AAR-411), avian radar units have been deployed at Seattle- Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Oak Harbor, Washington (NASWI) by the University of Illinois Center of Excellence in Airport Technology (CEAT). The radars have been operating for a year or more providing performance data and information on bird movement dynamics. The CEAT performance assessment program has been comprehensive considering sensor location, radar calibration, data acquisition and management, and data visualization. Sensor location issues are associated with antenna type, ambient clutter, and …

Assessing Movement, Site Preferences, And Environmental And Social Impacts Of Canada Geese Across An Urban Landscape, M. Elizabeth Rutledge, Christopher Deperno, Christopher Moorman, Michael Begier, Brian E. Washburn

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

Resident Canada goose (Branta canadensis maxima) populations have increased, causing many human-goose conflicts. These include decreased water quality, aggressive behavior towards humans and pets, the risk of disease from fecal contamination, and the potential for bird strikes to aircraft. To better understand these human-goose conflicts and potential risk to airport safety, we will examine Canada geese movements, habitat use, human attitudes toward geese, and disease transmission on the Piedmont-Triad International airport and surrounding areas of Greensboro, North Carolina. We will use a variety of tools, such as color-marking with auxiliary neck bands, satellite telemetry with global positioning system …

Developing Strategies For Long-Term Removal Of Raptors From Airports In California, Todd J. Pitlik

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

Airports in southern California have experienced a number of damaging bird strikes associated with raptors during the last 10 years, including two substantially damaging strikes involving red-tailed hawks. Southern California airfield habitats attract a large variety of small birds and rodents, especially California ground squirrels and pocket gophers, which attract red-tailed hawks and other predators into aircraft movement areas. Effective, publically acceptable methods to reduce prey populations and/or reduce raptor use of airport habitats are needed. Over a 14-month period during 2006-2007, body grip traps and gas cartridges were used to remove 927 California ground squirrels from one airfield. Monthly …

Reducing Bird Strike Risks Through Insect Management At A Military Base, Dedrick Pesek, Michael J. Bodenchuck, David J. Hayes, Mark Mapston

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

USDA-APHIS-Wildlife Services (WS) and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) work collaboratively to minimize bird strike risks at Air Force Bases (AFB) nationwide. At Laughlin AFB near Del Rio, Texas migratory, insectivorous birds in the aircraft operations area pose a bird strike risk to pilots and crews. The peak of bird strikes at Laughlin AFB is associated with the peaks of bird migration in the spring and fall. Noting this, WS recommended the application of carbaryl insecticide in the Laughlin AFB operational area to reduce insects and foraging opportunities for birds to reduce bird strike risks. Two trial treatments were conducted …

The Use Of An Integrated Geographical Information System At South African Airports, Claire Patterson-Abrolat

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has, over the past few years, become an integral component of the operations at all airports owned and/or operated by the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA). What has however been lacking, is the application of this technology to practically manage and reduce risks out on the airfield. ACSA Bird and Wildlife Management has recently initiated a programme to utilize GIS and global positioning systems (GPS) on their airfields and all ACSA Wildlife Control Officers (WCOs) are now using handheld mobile computers with integrated GPS to record information and track their patrols out on …

Safety Management Systems: How Useful Will The Faa National Wildlife Strike Database Be?, Sandra Wright, Richard Dolbeer

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

The National Wildlife Strike Database for Civil Aviation in the USA became operational in 1995 with the initiation of data entry of all strike reports beginning in 1990. The database contains 82,057 reported strikes from 1990-2007 involving civil aircraft in the USA or USA carriers in foreign countries. About 9,800 of these strike reports have noted damage to the aircraft of which 2,700 indicated the damage was substantial. The database has proven to be a useful source of objective information on the extent and nature of wildlife strikes for personnel at individual airports and for researchers and regulatory agencies at …

Managing Red-Tailed Hawk Perching Sites On Federal Aviation Administration (Faa) Equipment At General Mitchell International Airport (Mke), Milwaukee, Wi, Henri Woods

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

General Mitchell International Airport (MKE) located in Milwaukee, WI, has many man-made perching sites used by hawks. Several of these sites need to be addressed to improve air operations safety because of the preference by redtailed hawks. The first perching sites addressed at MKE were six lamp posts at the base of the 128th Air Refueling Wing of the Wisconsin Air National Guard, which were used daily by red-tailed hawks. In order to mitigate the perching, umbrella skeletons (Daddi Long Legs™ or Bird Spider™) were recommended to be attached to the top of each lamp post. After installation of the …

Training Airport Personnel For Wildlife Hazards: Organization, Obligation And Expectation, John Weller

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 10th (2008)

It is estimated that the recorded civil wildlife/ aircraft strikes (73,526) from 1990- 2006 represent <20% of their true occurrence and that the cost incurred by the US civil aviation industry exceeds $600 million annually. Twenty-eight percent (16,142) of identifiable strikes that occurred during this time (58,060) were documented by airport personnel and 73% of all reported strikes occurred at or below 500 feet (i.e., typically within the airport environment). It should follow that properly trained airport personnel could make a difference. To reduce aviation/ wildlife conflicts, these personnel attend training seminars to better understand a diversity of subjects such as wildlife threats, mitigation techniques, documentation procedures and regulations. Although the FAA has standardized the basic information to be provided within this training (Advisory Circular No: 150/ 5200-36), its content should be considered malleable from region to region and year to year. In FY-2006, USDA Wildlife Services personnel assisted 674 civilian and military facilities (civilian = 502; military/ civilian joint = 101; military = 71). Wildlife Services provided both operational and technical assistance to 271 and 403 airports respectively; resulting in 1,739 trained personnel from 217 civilian and military airports. During 2006 the WS North Carolina Program implemented an extensive, hands-on training program to assist military, General Aviation and 139 certificated airports to better understand wildlife hazards to aviation and meet FAA Advisory Circular 150/ 5200-36 requirements. Two hundred airport personnel were trained in North Carolina using nationally developed training modules. Because an airports personnel and wildlife concerns are dynamic, training techniques and content should be constantly evaluated and modified. Updated training seminars and modules should be made readily available to all instructors while techniques to quantify the impact of this training should be considered.