SR20
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 10; Flight Crew Total 300
Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Other / Unknown; Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control; Ground Event / Encounter Object; Ground Excursion Runway
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control
Human Factors
I was practicing power off 180s for my commercial single engine add on. I had just landed 2 times before this and my landings were great. My last landing for the day was a short approach for the power off 180. When I touched down I don't really remember but I think I may have let the nose touch the ground too quick which started a porpoise effect. It started off moderate then got really bad. I have never been told what to do in this situation so I just tried controlling the aircraft the best I could. I started to veer off to the left and ended up being in the grass for little bit then veered back onto the runway. During the proposing I pushed in full power and that helped the plane get under control. I thought about just doing full power and going around; but at this point I didn't feel comfortable doing that because I was at the last third of the runway and my airspeed was too low. When I went in the grass I took out one or maybe two lights. When I got back to the ramp I got out and walked around the plane with a maintenance person. There was no tail or prop strike; just a small dent on the flap where the light had hit. What caused this incident was not holding off the nose wheel long enough. Since there is no spring in the nose gear if you hit it too hard on touch down it can start to go into a porpoise. If this ever happens again I know exactly what to do. As soon as I start to feel that porpoise just do full power and a go around. If I would have known more about this type of problem and what to do in this situation this would have never happened.
While practicing landings in a Cirrus SR20 in preparation for a Single Engine rating; this 300 hour Multi-Engine and Instrument rated pilot lost control of the aircraft during touchdown; exited the runway; and made contact with at least one runway light; causing a small dent in a wing flap.