General aviation pilot reported a hard landing during gusty wind conditions. The pilot determined after landing the propellers' tips were damaged from striking the ground and decided to fly the aircraft back to the home airport for maintenance and landed safely.

Narrative

With a break in the weather; I decided to go up for a quick flight in my tailwheel aircraft on a relatively warm VMC day. I hadn't been flying as much as usual and wanted to get a couple landings in; so flew to an airport with plans to do a landing or two; then return to my home airport. Automated weather at the destination airport indicated relatively brisk winds coming from about 30 degrees off the runway heading; conditions in which I have landed this aircraft many times. On short final; I could feel some gusts; but felt confident that conditions were matched well with my experience and ability. During flare; a gust caused the aircraft to balloon. I made the mistake of pushing the nose down; and it was at this point that the gust evidently backed off and the nose of the aircraft dipped down. I experienced a hard landing and heard a momentary loud; high pitched sound; the cause of which wasn't immediately clear to me; and which was not accompanied by anything unusual in the aircraft's handling; etc. I wasn't sure whether the sound came from the aircraft; but decided to shut it down and ensure there wasn't anything wrong with the plane. I was horrified to discover some scrapes on the tips of both prop blades. This was a shock to me; and demonstrated a lapse in judgement by deciding against leaving the plane at that field and figuring out what to do about the damaged prop later. Factors in that decision include my having not wanted to leave my fabric-covered aircraft outside until I could figure out what maintenance/repair options might be available; my having had recent and earlier bad experiences in being at the mercy of maintenance facilities at which my aircraft had been held captive while waiting for lengthy; unnecessary (in one of the two cases that came to mind at that moment) and expensive maintenance activities; and being over-confident in my ability to assess the aircraft's capability to safely fly. Despite the prop strike; I elected to perform ground tests; assess the aircraft's behavior during takeoff and flying within the vicinity of the airport; and then fly back to my home airport using low cruise RPM and power settings. While nothing eventful happened on this flight; upon later reflection; I realized the decision to fly an aircraft after a prop strike was incredibly stupid and could have ended badly. Another factor that adversely affected this flight; besides those mentioned above; includes my not having flown as much as usual in the weeks leading up to this event. Reviewing Title 49 Part 830 it is my understanding that a prop strike does not necessitate reporting the occurrence. Nonetheless; after considering the potential for a mishap caused by flying an aircraft that has suffered a prop strike; I am embracing a renewed commitment to follow a plan of action centered on safety and prudence in the event something like this were to happen in the future.