Bonanza 33 flight instructor and student reported ground contact with object during power off landing maneuver.
Synopsis
Bonanza 33 flight instructor and student reported ground contact with object during power off landing maneuver.
Narrative
This was my first flight in a Beechcraft Bonanza F33A as an instructor with a student. We were doing pattern work at ZZZ; training my student on commercial landings. Our sixth lap in the pattern we planned and executed a power off 180 for training. The student got slow initially so I said to pitch for your best glide to give you the best chance in making it to the runway. On the base leg we were lower than optimal for a power off 180 so the options were to go around or to use flaps in ground effect in order to balloon to the chosen point. My student elected to use flaps to get us to our point which I agreed with. The student deployed the flaps in ground effect which I saw had little to no effect; this is when I executed a go around and added full power because the airspeed and altitude were too low. The inertia and slow speed of the plane caused us to keep sinking toward the ground at which point the left side of the horizontal stabilizer contacted an antenna; unknown to us at this point since it did not yaw the plane or cause any adverse flight characteristics. Our wheels then contacted the dirt around 550 ft. from the threshold of the runway. During the go around I kept the gear extended fearing that the gear could have been damaged from contacting the dirt and to troubleshoot (Gear still indicated 3 green and no disagreement). The traffic pattern was flown and I took the landing to make it as soft as possible to make sure the gear didn't fail as well as preparing for a go around in the case of a gear failure. We taxied back to the ramp and then noticed the damage on the horizontal stabilizer then. The contributing factor to this situation was not having enough energy/airspeed for the flaps to work and not going around sooner. This was caused due to the lack of strict personal minimums for power off 180s in this aircraft.
Second reporter narrative
I was flying a Bonanza F33A at traffic pattern altitude here at ZZZ. Mid-field downwind I tuned into the weather frequency and was advised that the wind was 020 at 14kts. I was planning for a practice short approach (Power-off 180) into Runway XX (Direct headwind). At the 1000 ft. markers my instructor pulled power and I pitched over for best glide for my aircraft (105 kts). Due to the head wind I turned base as soon as I met my best glide airspeed. Turning base to final while doing my best to maintain my best glide I realized we were going to be ~500 ft. short of Runway XX. I had a short conversation with my instructor that I knew for sure I was going to be short; at that time my instructor informed me that the controls were mine and that it was my decision to make. I advised my instructor that go-around was an option but I also felt that if we got into ground effect and extended 1 notch of flaps; we could float enough to make the runway; my instructor concurred so we continued the short approach. At roughly 100 ft. AGL I initiated the flap extension and felt zero lift gained by the aircraft; the instructor immediately reached over my arm that was still on the flap switch and pushed full throttle. Due to being on the back of the power curve and the sink rate of the aircraft; we momentarily touched down ~500 ft. short of Runway XX in the dirt. Upon the touch in the dirt the instructor took the controls bringing us back airborne while avoiding the approach lighting system; once airborne the instructor handed the controls back to me and advised me to do a go around leaving the gear extended because they feared that the landing gear integrity may have been compromised due to the touchdown on dirt. The instructor advised me to fly the traffic pattern and they would take controls on final to do a real-life soft field; so the landing was as light as possible in case the gear actually was compromised. Upon the instructor landing (Normal roll out) we taxied back to the South ramp to park and to go fetch maintenance personnel to come inspect the landing gear for us. Once we shut the aircraft down and got out to go get a maintainer; we noticed damage to the horizontal stabilizer. Up until this point we had no idea that the aircraft struck anything or anything other than the landing gear (touching dirt) could have been damaged. At the time we seen the damage we had no idea what the aircraft came into contact with; nor would we have ever performed a go-around knowing there was damage there. It wasn't until ~1 hour later we were advised by the flight chief that we made contact with an antenna. The antenna made contact with the left side of the horizontal stabilizer of the aircraft. Both the instructor and I never heard or felt any contact; all the flight controls and flight characteristics seemed normal as well throughout the entire traffic pattern while preforming the go-around. As I am extremely disappointed in myself that I allowed this to happen. I did learn a tremendous amount about my comfort minimums and when to trust my gut on performing a go around much sooner; as well as the aircraft I was flying and the characteristics of it. I only have 2 hrs. in the aircraft but was under the impression it had much better float characteristics than it actually has.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.