Narrative:

I was on a solo training flight to practice night landings on runway 27 at ijd airport. I have flown into this airport several times; including at night in the recent past; but mostly in the day. The approach to my first landing of the night seemed normal and the runway lights were clearly in sight. (This airport does not have a VASI.) I was in a stabilized descent at about 105 knots; as desired. Suddenly; branches from the tops of some trees were illuminated by the landing lights. By the time they came into sight; it was too late to avoid them. I concentrated on maintaining control of the aircraft. The branches were small enough that they had no discernible effect on the airplane's airspeed or directional control. Rather than attempt to land immediately after the collision; I applied power and climbed away from the ground. Once at a safer altitude; I checked and could find no anomalies in the sound or performance of the engines; or the operation of the flight controls; or any other system. I returned to [home airport]; where the airplane is based; so that if the landing gear or something else malfunctioned upon landing I would have access to more help than would have been available at ijd. I was distracted; though; and did forget to report a 2 mile final; as the tower had requested. The landing gear and other systems performed correctly. I landed normally and taxied to the hangar; where I found damage to the landing gear doors; taxi light; nose cone; and some dents in the wings.I inadvertently allowed the airplane to approach the runway at an excessively shallow glide path. Although my intention was to develop a capacity for night landing at a small untowered airport; in case it should someday be necessary; it would have been better for me to practice night landings at an airport with a VASI; or one with which I am much more familiar.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A small aircraft private pilot; flying a practice night visual to a non-towered airport with no VASI; struck small branches of trees on final; initiated a go-around and diverted back to his home airport. After a safe landing with all systems normal; a post flight inspection revealed moderate damage to several forward facing facets of the airframe.

Narrative: I was on a solo training flight to practice night landings on runway 27 at IJD airport. I have flown into this airport several times; including at night in the recent past; but mostly in the day. The approach to my first landing of the night seemed normal and the runway lights were clearly in sight. (This airport does not have a VASI.) I was in a stabilized descent at about 105 knots; as desired. Suddenly; branches from the tops of some trees were illuminated by the landing lights. By the time they came into sight; it was too late to avoid them. I concentrated on maintaining control of the aircraft. The branches were small enough that they had no discernible effect on the airplane's airspeed or directional control. Rather than attempt to land immediately after the collision; I applied power and climbed away from the ground. Once at a safer altitude; I checked and could find no anomalies in the sound or performance of the engines; or the operation of the flight controls; or any other system. I returned to [home airport]; where the airplane is based; so that if the landing gear or something else malfunctioned upon landing I would have access to more help than would have been available at IJD. I was distracted; though; and did forget to report a 2 mile final; as the tower had requested. The landing gear and other systems performed correctly. I landed normally and taxied to the hangar; where I found damage to the landing gear doors; taxi light; nose cone; and some dents in the wings.I inadvertently allowed the airplane to approach the runway at an excessively shallow glide path. Although my intention was to develop a capacity for night landing at a small untowered airport; in case it should someday be necessary; it would have been better for me to practice night landings at an airport with a VASI; or one with which I am much more familiar.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.