Bombardier/Canadair Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250; Flight Crew Total 7500; Flight Crew Type 1500
Situational Awareness
Deviation - Altitude Overshoot; Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged
Human Factors; Environment - Non Weather Related
I was performing a repositioning flight. It was a clear moonless night. I was the Pilot Flying from the right seat. Before departure I briefed the Pilot Monitoring that I would be doing an RNAV approach because of the lack of visual guidance at this airport. I intercepted the final approach at the FAF and tracked it inbound; keeping the VPATH indicator perfectly centered. At approximately 400 ft. AGL I transitioned the visual keeping the GPS VPATH centered and just before touchdown at approximately 75 ft. AGL I heard a sound resembling the sound I have heard when I hit a bird. The Pilot Monitoring and I discussed the obvious - that we had contacted treetops. After a very normal landing and taxi to the FBO we discovered minor damage.
We receive the landing information and cancelled our radar coverage with Approach. There was no natural lighting (moonlight) to use and [the] runway does not have a VASI. We proceeded with care to landing point. At about 250 ft. and 1;000 ft. from the runway with good visibility of the runway we hit the top of a tree. The aircraft did not change attitude and the landing was uneventful. After a post flight I found small marks on the leading edge and grounded the aircraft till further inspection could be made.
Flight crew of a corporate jet reported hitting a tree top on a night visual approach.