Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 300; Flight Crew Total 12500; Flight Crew Type 705
Situational Awareness
Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control; Ground Excursion Runway
Human Factors; Weather
After a normal visual approach and touchdown on runway; my aircraft departed the paved runway surface on the right side of the runway. This departure from the runway paved surface was caused by a gust of wind that overpowered the RV-8 (tail dragger) rudder and tailwheel which did not have sufficient steering authority to keep the aircraft moving in a straight line down the runway. I used full rudder and full wheel braking to try to stay on the runway; but it quickly became apparent that I could not maintain directional control and the airplane left the pavement at approximately 20 knots ground speed.I brought the aircraft to a stop and shut down the engine between Runway 3 and Taxiway A; about halfway between the runway approach end and Taxiway A8. There was no damage to the airplane and I sustained no injuries. Airport personnel assisted in moving the aircraft back to my hangar. I telephoned the Tower to inform them that the aircraft was not damaged and that there were no injuries.Immediately after the incident; I thought the cause had to be a tailwheel malfunction. I spoke with the Tower controller on the phone and told him that I thought it was a tailwheel problem. However; after getting the airplane back to my hangar; I carefully inspected the tailwheel and found it to be operating normally.Upon further consideration; I believe that contributing factors in this incident were the wind; and my initial surprise at the gust since no gust factor was reported on ATIS or by tower. Another contributing factor was my inattention and complacence as I assumed that the landing weather conditions would be just like every other time I landed at ZZZ. In hindsight; I might have recognized the dangerous situation earlier on landing rollout and executed a go-around; since there was plenty of runway surface remaining for a go-around.
RV-8 pilot reported a loss of directional control and runway excursion due to a gust of wind.