PA28 instructor with a student reported striking a deer well into the takeoff roll. The runway light...

Attributes
ACN	1309261
Time
Date	201511
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Instructor
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Commercial
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250 Flight Crew Total 650 Flight Crew Type 3
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural FAR Ground Event / Encounter Person / Animal / Bird

Narrative:

While providing night instruction to a student working toward a private pilot certificate; our aircraft struck a buck deer on the runway. The deer ran head first into the propeller while we were on the takeoff roll approximately 1500 feet down the runway. One contributing factor to the incident may have been that the runway lights were not on at the time of the strike. My student just commenced an approach and landing with a simulated failure of the onboard radio leaving him unable to activate the runway lights. Our source of illumination for the runway landing area was the landing light of the aircraft. If the runway lighting system had been turned on it is possible we may have been able to see the animal sooner and avoid the strike.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA28 Instructor with a student reported striking a deer well into the takeoff roll. The runway lights were not on at the time and the landing light revealed the deer too late to take evasive action.

Narrative: While providing night instruction to a student working toward a private pilot certificate; our aircraft struck a buck deer on the runway. The deer ran head first into the propeller while we were on the takeoff roll approximately 1500 feet down the runway. One contributing factor to the incident may have been that the runway lights were not on at the time of the strike. My student just commenced an approach and landing with a simulated failure of the onboard radio leaving him unable to activate the runway lights. Our source of illumination for the runway landing area was the landing light of the aircraft. If the runway lighting system had been turned on it is possible we may have been able to see the animal sooner and avoid the strike.

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.

PA28 instructor with a student reported striking a deer well into the takeoff roll. The runway lights were not on at the time and the landing light revealed the deer too late to take evasive action.