2010-07 · NASA ASRS report 898511
Waco student and instructor report inappropriate brake usage during a wheel landing resulting in a runway excursion.
I was receiving instruction for transition training in the WACO UPF 7 from a CFI who was acting as pilot in command. We departed and received clearance for the option from the Tower. Upon touching down for a wheel landing on the main landing gear with the tail still up in the air; the aircraft started to swerve slightly to the right. At that point I applied left brake and rudder; and the aircraft suddenly pivoted around the left main wheel to the left. I tried to apply right rudder; but the aircraft departed the left side of the runway on a straight line into the grass. Upon leaving the runway; the aircraft struck a runway light pole before I brought it to a stop. I advised the Tower that we were on the grass and reported that we wanted to taxi to the ramp to shut down and inspect the aircraft for damage. We were told to contact Ground Control. I told Ground Control that we were on the grass and that we wanted to taxi to the ramp to shut down and inspect the damage. I also advised Ground Control that we had knocked down a runway light pole. We were cleared to taxi to the ramp; where we shut down and inspected the aircraft for damage. The CFI; who is also an A and P mechanic with inspection authorization; carefully inspected the aircraft and determined that there was no substantial damage and that the aircraft was airworthy. We called the Tower on the telephone; and we eventually were advised to contact the local FSDO by phone prior to departing which we did. The FSDO authorized us to fly the aircraft back to home field after the CFI/A and P assured him that there was no damage affecting airworthiness. The reason for the uncommanded turn to the left off the runway was the improper application of left brake while the tail was still in the air. Proper input would have been left rudder only; without brakes. The safety lesson learned was never to apply one brake to correct a swerve before the tail of the aircraft is on the ground.
The objective of the flight was to practice take-off's and landings on a paved runway which is more difficult and challenging than operations from a turf runway in a vintage aircraft of this type.The home field has a single paved runway that is 50 FT wide. Because this runway is narrow; the decision was made to practice at a nearby field where there is a 150 FT wide runway.I; the Instructor; am very experienced in this aircraft type. I have been flying this airplane for many years; with at least 258 logged hours in type and more than 5;000 hours in tail wheel aircraft. The student had previous tail wheel experience and endorsement and I had already given him about 10 hours of instruction in this aircraft within the last 60 days. My assessment as an Instructor was that the student had pretty much gotten the hang of it so to speak and was about ready to advance to the narrow paved runway at the home airport. (We had begun the training initially on a wide turf runway at another airport with the introduction and practice a three point and wheel landings on the turf. Subsequent lessons had then been advanced to practice on the paved runway at this airport on previous occasions.) However it had been close to three weeks since the last lesson so the idea was to brush up a little on the wide and long runway.A key point in technique that had been stressed during these previous sessions was not to touch the brakes until the tail wheel was on the ground when making a wheel landing. Moreover one should not to force the tail down once on the ground in the wheel landing attitude; but rather let tail come down on its own maintaining directional control with the rudder only no brakes during this phase of the landing roll out.The point had been previously stressed and understood by the student that forcing the tail down (or pulling it down with the stick) prematurely was a good way to induce a ground loop because this action would dramatically increase the angle of attack on the wing when it still had enough speed remaining to generate some lift; and enough lift if helped along by any crosswind to cause the aircraft to yaw and thereby cause the down-wind wing to hit the ground and begin a ground loop event. (Application of brakes while the tail was still flying could also cause enough adverse yaw to perpetuate a ground loop or even worse flip the aircraft over.)Conditions at the time were ideal. Wind was less than 5 KTS and landing clearance with the option (for a stop and go) was given by the Tower on the longest and widest of the two runways. When the airplane touched down on the main wheels; directional control was good and it was tracking straight. Then it began to yaw to the right as speed decreased and the tail began to lower. This is a critical time where the pilot flying needs to immediately arrest the yaw with opposite rudder even if aggressive opposite rudder is necessary; but no brakes. Instead the student hit the left brake fairly hard.Now the right yaw which was only about 10 degrees suddenly became a sharp yaw to the left at about 45 degrees. At this point the airplane was headed off the runway onto the grass and it struck a runway light where it departed the runway.The critical error was that the student stomped on the left brake when the aircraft began to yaw to the right while the tail was still flying. Contributing to this event were the following factors. This is an antique aircraft. The pilot flying sits in the rear cockpit; the instructor pilot or pilot not flying sits in the front cockpit. As such the instructor pilot cannot see what the pilot flying is doing with his feet or how he has them positioned on the rudder pedals and if he has his heels on the floor away from the toe brakes. Forward visibility is limited on the ground in an aircraft of this type; especially in the three point attitude. This makes it impossible to see the runway centerline straight ahead in the way you can in a conventional aircraft. It therefore requires developing a different set of visual references for directional control on the runway. The wheels and brakes are big and powerful; designed for unimproved turf runways and enough to hold the aircraft stationary during run-up given the horsepower of the engine. The design of the rudder pedals and toe brakes is such that it requires deliberate effort to make sure your feet are not touching the brakes; you must deliberately slid your feet down; heels on the floor away from the toe brakes.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.