Narrative:

I was flying with my student this morning. We were practicing landings. On the second landing; with my student at the controls; we had a propeller strike. The student was on the brakes before the airplane ever touched the pavement. As soon as it made contact; the student pressed the brakes harder. At that instant I made sure the throttle was all the way out and tried to take over the aircraft. I yelled 'get off the brakes!' however; his knees were locked and he was not relaxing. The airplane skidded about 150 ft down the runway and started to yaw to the right. The student was not responding to my calls and was fighting over the controls. The left wingtip made contact with the runway and the nose cone scraped the ground. The airplane came to a stop right side up. I quickly turned everything off and got out of the airplane with the student. The FBO responded quickly. They towed the airplane from the runway and cleaned up all the debris. This was my second flight with this student. We did the same flight the night before. The student had 6 hours in the airplane. I had 9 hours in it. I think that the brake and rudder pedal set-up is dangerous. A student can be on the brakes without realizing it. In a cessna or piper you have to really stand on your toes to engage the brakes. In the CH601 it is very easy to have brakes engaged without even knowing about it. I find this to be an unsafe set-up. This should be looked at as the sport pilot license is gaining popularity. No one was hurt and I am extremely happy to walk away from it. It really scared me. There is no emergency exit and if the airplane did flip over; I would have not been able to get out. I feel as there wasn't anything that I could have done other than maybe striking my student while this was happening. It really opened my eyes. Every time I do a landing with a student from now on; I will make sure to tell them to stay off the brakes. Callback conversation with reporter revealed the following information: reporter stated the brake pedals on the zenith zodiac have no resistance or play like you would experience on a cessna or piper aircraft; allowing an inexperienced pilot the opportunity to lock up the brakes without knowing they were even applying them.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CH601; Zenith Zodiac; Instructor pilot experienced a prop strike when the student locked up on the brakes prior to touchdown.

Narrative: I was flying with my student this morning. We were practicing landings. On the second landing; with my student at the controls; we had a propeller strike. The student was on the brakes before the airplane ever touched the pavement. As soon as it made contact; the student pressed the brakes harder. At that instant I made sure the throttle was all the way out and tried to take over the aircraft. I yelled 'get off the brakes!' However; his knees were locked and he was not relaxing. The airplane skidded about 150 FT down the runway and started to yaw to the right. The student was not responding to my calls and was fighting over the controls. The left wingtip made contact with the runway and the nose cone scraped the ground. The airplane came to a stop right side up. I quickly turned everything off and got out of the airplane with the student. The FBO responded quickly. They towed the airplane from the runway and cleaned up all the debris. This was my second flight with this student. We did the same flight the night before. The student had 6 hours in the airplane. I had 9 hours in it. I think that the brake and rudder pedal set-up is dangerous. A student can be on the brakes without realizing it. In a Cessna or Piper you have to really stand on your toes to engage the brakes. In the CH601 it is very easy to have brakes engaged without even knowing about it. I find this to be an unsafe set-up. This should be looked at as the sport pilot license is gaining popularity. No one was hurt and I am extremely happy to walk away from it. It really scared me. There is no emergency exit and if the airplane did flip over; I would have not been able to get out. I feel as there wasn't anything that I could have done other than maybe striking my student while this was happening. It really opened my eyes. Every time I do a landing with a student from now on; I will make sure to tell them to stay off the brakes. Callback conversation with Reporter revealed the following information: Reporter stated the brake pedals on the Zenith Zodiac have no resistance or play like you would experience on a Cessna or Piper aircraft; allowing an inexperienced pilot the opportunity to lock up the brakes without knowing they were even applying them.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.