Champion Citabria Undifferentiated
Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 46; Flight Crew Total 128; Flight Crew Type 4
Training / Qualification
Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft; Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Human Factors
I was sitting front seat; doing my tail wheel training in the Citabria practicing touch and goes. I was practicing my second ever short field landing in this aircraft and as I was applying breaking to the aircraft I heard my instructor telling me to press harder on the brakes; as we were nearing the end of the landing. I then applied brakes to the point of the tail wheel rising up and then the propeller struck the runway.
We were practicing short field landings for training. After landing the student started applying brakes very lightly. I prompted the student to increase braking action and the student suddenly applied aggressive braking action. The tail began to rise and I applied full aft elevator to help slow the rise but was unable to prevent the prop from striking the runway. From the time aggressive brakes were applied until the prop struck the ground was less than .5 seconds. I had previously briefed with the student what the appropriate short field landing and braking action should look like on the ground and in flight just before the demonstration. I then demonstrated how the maneuver was to be performed before allowing the student to execute the maneuver. Total distance covered from the time the prop impacted the runway was only approximately 5 feet. After the aircraft came to a stop I shut everything down besides the radio; made a radio call to traffic in the area to temporarily close the runway and then had the student monitor the radios while I contacted airport management to notam the runway closed and get assistance with the aircraft. A preliminary inspection revealed damage to the prop; spinner; and lower cowling. No injuries were incurred and not further damage is known at this time.
Flight instructor and student reported that during landing practice in a Citabria tailwheel aircraft; the student applied aggressive braking which caused the tail to rise resulting in a propeller strike.