I saw a full page ad in a recent Flying for a school in Arizona looking for CFIs....The school was offering $40,000 salary and all kinds of benefits....unheard of in the past, but an indication of the current situation where the airlines are poaching instructors. Our local flight school had a new instructor for only two weeks before he was hired away.... The work's there, it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
That sounds like an early Learjet that was taking off somewhere in the midwest (Cincinnati?) and a bird came through the windshield...I think one of the pilots was killed, the other may have had an arm amputated....as a result, certification now requires a "bird" be shot from a cannon at the windscreen to simulate an inflight encounter. They typically use dead chickens. (The engine, too, has to sustain a bird strike and maintain a certain percent of power.).
It is a Cardinal....strange paint job, though. They've finally gotten rid of those drawings and are now using photographs....it's nice to be able to see what they all really look like....
