Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 40; Flight Crew Total 2000; Flight Crew Type 800
Other / Unknown; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Excursion Runway; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
General None Reported / Taken
Weather; Human Factors
Landed short at night. About 25 feet short of runway. 2700 feet x 60 feet runway. No lights in vicinity or airport. I know of 2 trees in approach path that cannot be seen at night directly in line with the runway. In my opinion they need to be removed. Not a direct factor in this case.Airspeed was good for the short field approach which I have made many times and several times at night in last few weeks. I pulled throttle as I normally do when I am about to cross the threshold. But for some reason last night we settled quickly; not sure why. Winds aloft even at 1000 feet were cross runway at over 20 knots. I don't recall exact surface winds but they favored Runway 21. I had just landed prior to that for a fuel stop.
PA46 pilot reports landing short of the runway during a night visual approach to an unlighted runway. A short field landing was planned for the 2700 foot runway with a strong crosswind; but the aircraft settled earlier than expected.