PA-46 Malibu Meridian
Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 35; Flight Crew Total 5450
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft
Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport
Human Factors
I departed ZZZ for an evening flight to ZZZ1. Enroute; I passed by ZZZ2 and circled the field to assess if I was going to land there on my way back to ZZZ. I noticed that the taxiways appeared narrow with airplanes parked close to the taxiway and tree lines close to the taxiway. This observation made me question if my wing span might be too long to use the taxiways. I proceeded to ZZZ1 and made a normal landing to a full stop and then departed ZZZ1 south for the return flight back to ZZZ. While enroute to ZZZ; I approached ZZZ2 from the north and decided to reevaluate the taxiway situation as I considered to make a landing if possible on runway XX. I flew on crosswind to enter a left downwind for runway XX and to look at the ends of both runways to establish that there was an adequate turnaround area in case the taxiway width and clearance were inadequate. While flying the pattern; I concluded that I could make a safe landing and; if necessary; turn around on runway XX and back taxi to its departure end where I could turn around again and reconfigure the plane for take-off. Throughout the pattern; I made all the appropriate radio calls communicating my position and landing intentions.  Passing the end of runway XX; I started the descent from pattern altitude and then turned to base deploying the second notch of flaps followed by turning to final and deploying full flaps. As runway XX is short; I was concentrating on aiming the airplane for the landing point and reducing airspeed to final approach speed; consistent with the appropriate aircraft performance parameters for a short-field landing. Shortly before flaring; I went through my final before-landing-checklist; and I observed that my landing gear lights were not green at which time I initiated a go-around. I applied full power; and as I did so I heard scraping that appeared to come from behind me. The aircraft climbed quickly with rapid altitude gain at over a 1000 fpm and with wings level.  Based on all the information reasonably available to me; I concluded that I must have briefly struck the tail of the aircraft on the runway as I initiated the go-around and I had to make a quick decision on whether to return to the airport. Since I could not be absolutely certain of the damage to the aircraft and whether the aircraft would continue to operate normally in the tight turns required to circle around and return to land at ZZZ2; I decided to continue straight for the longer and wider runway YY at ZZZ. The plane performed well; though I decided not to retract the flaps during the 5 nm trip direct to ZZZ.  I executed a straight-in approach; extending the landing gear on short final to ZZZ runway YY; confirming three greens and landing gear down. The landing was uneventful and I taxied back to my hanger. Upon initial inspection after getting out of the airplane; I did not see any damage. At my hangar; while loading the airplane onto the tug; I noticed damage to my propeller blades. After placing the plane back into the hangar and giving it a closer examination; I noticed that the flaps had some scratch marks inboard towards the fuselage.
PA46T pilot reported a prop strike while flaring and a subsequent go-around with the landing gear not down.