<< >> NASA ASRS Report 1439328, April 2017

Light sport airport pilot reported cutting a power line with his propeller when a downdraft forced an altitude loss.

Attributes
ACN	1439328
Time
Date	201704
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Light Sport Aircraft
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 15 Flight Crew Total 1520 Flight Crew Type 140
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence Inflight Event / Encounter Object Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control

Narrative:

After an initial low approach to survey the runway; and while on a subsequent short final into a turf 1200 feet runway in hilly terrain; a sudden; powerful downdraft caused the aircraft to lose altitude and impact a utility line just prior to the approach end of [the] runway. All actions to mitigate the drop in altitude (adding full power; pitching up for maximum climb); proved unsuccessful in arresting the sink rate. The sink resulted in the propeller cutting a utility line approximately 200 feet before the runway threshold; resulting in minor damage to the propeller. A normal landing and rollout was accomplished after the impact with the utility line.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Light Sport Airport pilot reported cutting a power line with his propeller when a downdraft forced an altitude loss.

Narrative: After an initial low approach to survey the runway; and while on a subsequent short final into a turf 1200 feet runway in hilly terrain; a sudden; powerful downdraft caused the aircraft to lose altitude and impact a utility line just prior to the approach end of [the] runway. All actions to mitigate the drop in altitude (adding full power; pitching up for maximum climb); proved unsuccessful in arresting the sink rate. The sink resulted in the propeller cutting a utility line approximately 200 feet before the runway threshold; resulting in minor damage to the propeller. A normal landing and rollout was accomplished after the impact with the utility line.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.