Incident Overview
A pilot was conducting night flight operations to regain night currency after having flown earlier in the day with his young son as a passenger. During the solo flight, he performed two full-stop landings. After the second landing, the pilot sensed that the control yoke felt heavier than usual for the trim setting he typically used. Despite this observation, he initiated a takeoff.
Sequence of Events
Approximately halfway down the runway, the pilot applied additional nose-up trim. The controls still felt heavy, leading him to abort the takeoff. However, he was unable to bring the aircraft to a stop within the remaining runway distance. The aircraft departed the runway and went off the edge into a four-foot-high bank of dirt.
Post-Incident Findings
An inspection of the aircraft revealed that the elevator trim position indicator was not indicating the actual position of the elevator trim. The discrepancy between the indicator and the actual trim setting may have contributed to the pilot's perception of heavy controls, though the cause of the incident is not explicitly stated in the source.