GA pilot reported drifting during landing and steering the aircraft off and back onto the runway to avoid hitting runway lights.

Date: 2025-07 · Aircraft: Rangemaster (Navion) · Phase: landing

Anomalies: ground-event-encounter-loss-of-aircraft-control|ground-excursion-runway|inflight-event-encounter-weather-turbulence|inflight-event-encounter-loss-of-aircraft-control

Synopsis

GA pilot reported drifting during landing and steering the aircraft off and back onto the runway to avoid hitting runway lights.

Narrative

Landing on runway XX at ZZZ in Aircraft X Navion Rangemaster H using full flaps (45 Degrees) I got too slow in the approach to the flare. The aircraft drifted to the right due to a crosswind. To avoid hitting a runway light I deemed it safer to veer off to the right onto the grass and continue going forward until I could reenter the runway between the next available set of runway lights. No damage was sustained to the aircraft; airport property; or personal. The wind was reported as calm but other nearby airports reporting 200-210 degrees 5-8 knots. ZZZ is surrounded by mountains and the weather reporting instruments are located 500 feet above the airport on top of a mountain. It is possible I experienced a crosswind coming from the mountains on the south. In any event the fact remains that I just got too slow on the final approach to flaring and must insure that when using the full 45 degree flap position of this aircraft to not let that happen as the aircraft experiences a high sink rate.

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