Original Message

Look, it's all a balance of risk vs reward. I fly a lot above 3000-4000agl.....IFR. How often have I gotten a chip light? What about fire? Lost HYD? Only a handful of chip lights in my long career, none required any sort of MX(fuz). Fire? Never. Hyd, once in a single.

Now, I compare that against how many bird strikes my organization has annually, probably close to 10-12. Damage? Yep, once every few years. Serious, yes. Broken windows, pedal blockage etc. We are in a high bit migration area.

So the risk is a lot higher for birds for us than anything else. Enough to warrant taking mitigating steps such as flying higher, slower when low etc.