Pilot reported a prop strike occurred shortly after touchdown when encountering a bump in the runway.

Date: 2024-08 · Aircraft: Small Aircraft · Phase: landing

Anomalies: ground-event-encounter-ground-strike-aircraft|ground-event-encounter-loss-of-aircraft-control

Synopsis

Pilot reported a prop strike occurred shortly after touchdown when encountering a bump in the runway.

Narrative

During a solo cross country flight to ZZZ- I was cleared for a straight in on runway XX. I was on about a 5 mile final with winds coming from the west. My approach was stable; I was crabbed into the wind and had a good sight picture of my touchdown point. I came in with good airspeed and everything appeared to be looking stabilized. I had right rudder in; combating the crosswind and keep the aircraft straight and on center line. I set the main gear down with the nose wheel still in the air and slowly lowered the nose. Approximately 1-2 seconds after setting the nose wheel down. I saw a good sized bump in the runway and before I could react to it the nose of the aircraft popped up at least a few feet off of the ground; I tried to pull back on the stick to keep it from aggressively coming back down but was unable to hold the nose wheel up and upon impacting the ground again it bent in; resulting in the prop striking the runway. The aircraft then came to a stop on the runway after the prop strike. I immediately shut down everything in the aircraft and exited the canopy while examining the damage. During my preflight for this flight I read a comment on ForeFlight stating; 'There is a bump on the runway about 1/3 of the way down from the XX approach end; past the first windsock; that is enough to briefly send you in the air.' that 'is enough to briefly send you into the air'. During final I was conscious about this bump and actively looking for it and trying to land after it. However; I was unable to identify any irregularity on the runway from my approach angle in the air and set the plane down where I had believed to be a good spot.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.