Do you check for bullet holes in your preflight?

Strange things going on.

Closest I ever came to such was many years ago on a long cross country trip in ultralight type aircraft (Challenger II CWS) we were stopped in Georgia and went into town with fuel cans to get fuel. The local sheriff asked about the number of cans we were filling and we explained that we had three planes to fill.

We invited him to come out and get a ride in one of the planes. He declined and told us to seriously not fly low over certain areas near the airport as the local ethanol brewers would take it as a threat and the likelihood of them taking a shot at an ultralight would be very high.

Looking at the above damage it seems likely that the shot was not intended for the plane but that it came from above. Still it would have led to a tough day in this pressurized plane. Good preflight!
 
On final at my home airport, there is a skeet range almost immediately below you. I keep waiting for some yahoo to take a shot at "one of the big'uns".
 
A decade or more ago when I occasionally flew an SR20 out of Hayward (KHWD) we found a small bullet hole in the underside of the left wing (IIRC) of the SR20. It was theorized that it probably came from the previous flight flying a little too low over one of Mendocino County's many weed farms or meth labs...
 
bflynn said:
On final at my home airport, there is a skeet range almost immediately below you. I keep waiting for some yahoo to take a shot at "one of the big'uns".
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There is a trap field in north Jersey about two miles from KCDW. We get a fair bit of traffic over the field. The aircraft are out of shotgun range by a factor of 20X, I'd imagine, so no safety conflict at all. It's just jarring to see aircraft out over the trap houses.
 
Doc Holliday said:
So he states with that bullet hole the plane would not have held pressurization. :rolleyes:o_O

Wonder if he knows how an outflow valve works?
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Yeah, but would the pressurization have kept up with that size hole?
 
Bill said:
Yeah, but would the pressurization have kept up with that size hole?
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How big is the opening of the outflow valve? Again, understand how an outflow valve works in pressurization before assuming a small hole will not allow the cabin to pressurize.

Other than a loud whistle sound, he would have probably never noticed it.
 
Doc Holliday said:
How big is the opening of the outflow valve? Again, understand how an outflow valve works in pressurization before assuming a small hole will not allow the cabin to pressurize.

Other than a loud whistle sound, he would have probably never noticed it.
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So basically yes, the pressurization would keep up with the hole. Of course, whatever loose material that may be above in that panel might get sucked into the hole...
 
What if it had hit the tank you thought had 20 gallons in it....

You can't trust fuel gauges, and now you can't trust a dip stick.
 
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Found a hole in a F900 a lot bigger than that from corrosion in a pressurized skin and they never reported pressurization issues.
 
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Salty said:
What if it had hit the tank you thought had 20 gallons in it....

You can't trust fuel gauges, and now you can't trust a dip stick.
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But you’ve got a place to put the dipstick without taking the fuel cap off.
 
Tantalum said:
Do you check for bullet holes in your preflight?
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Not so much these days. But some years ago, flying SAR training hops in the Sierras, it was a post-flight check item. I think I actually got shot at more in Californistan than in the Persian Gulf.
 
When I was loading sprayplane, he’d come back with a bullet hole about once a season.
 
wilkersk said:
Not so much these days. But some years ago, flying SAR training hops in the Sierras, it was a post-flight check item. I think I actually got shot at more in Californistan than in the Persian Gulf.
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That’s funny. I was in California when I found the hole on post flight. No desire to live there… expensive and the locals shoot at me.
 
wilkersk said:
Not so much these days. But some years ago, flying SAR training hops in the Sierras, it was a post-flight check item. I think I actually got shot at more in Californistan than in the Persian Gulf.
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Interesting.. who was shooting at you?
 
bflynn said:
On final at my home airport, there is a skeet range almost immediately below you. I keep waiting for some yahoo to take a shot at "one of the big'uns".
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Yeah, there’s a shooting range a football’s throw off the end of the runway at FGU too. Luckily, it’s for the police, so surely they have enough sense to operate responsibly.
 
RyanB said:
Yeah, there’s a shooting range a football’s throw off the end of the runway at FGU too. Luckily, it’s for the police, so surely they have enough sense to operate responsibly.
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:rolleyes:

Both my current gun club, and two former clubs in towns where I used to live, all at one point offered use of their facilities for police training.

All three stopped the practice, as the walls, ceiling, floor, light fixtures, shooting benches, and port dividers were getting too shot up when the police used the range.
 
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