What happened
During the landing roll of a tailwheel airplane, the aircraft veered to the left after touchdown. The pilot attempted to realign with the runway centerline using right rudder input, but the aircraft began heading toward the extreme right. During this maneuver, the tailwheel lifted off the ground.
The flight instructor, who was assisting with control stick movement and verbal guidance, reported that as she attempted to bring the control stick aft, the pilot pushed the stick forward. This action elevated the tailwheel off the runway. The pilot also applied right rudder, which caused the aircraft to turn sideways. Although the instructor successfully brought the tailwheel back down to the runway, she was unable to correct the rudder due to resistance and noted that the pilot appeared to have frozen on the controls.
In an attempt to stop the aircraft before it left the paved surface, the instructor applied heavy braking. However, the deep mud in the adjacent ditch caused the brakes to be ineffective, and the aircraft continued sliding until it entered the ditch and nosed over. There were no injuries resulting from the accident.
Findings
The investigation noted that the pilot had no prior experience flying this specific aircraft make or model before the accident flight. The flight instructor had approximately 20 hours of experience in conventional tailwheel airplanes, with 16.6 of those hours completed in the accident aircraft.