A-1 Husky
Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 170; Flight Crew Total 1450; Flight Crew Type 36.5
Human-Machine Interface
Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft; Ground Excursion Runway; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged
Human Factors; Weather; Aircraft
Loss of directional control during ground roll after landing. This was the ninth landing of the training sortie and the student's second lesson in the tailwheel airplane. The student made a safe wheel landing (soft field technique); in light and variable winds; and we were decelerating when the student began to create minor oscillations with the rudder. I instructed him to not over correct and that he was inducing the oscillation. The student made an over-correction and the aircraft moved out of alignment with the runway. I took the controls to prevent a ground loop and planned to coast into the grass; but the airplane nosed down upon leaving the runway and caused a prop strike. The aircraft stopped quickly since we were at a slow airspeed when the strike occurred; but still managed to nose into the ground on the paved berm of the runway. I believe the ultimate cause was the variable winds. The winds were favoring the north and Runway 35; but were variable to the east. Although light; they may have created the minor deflections in airplane alignment that led to the loss of control.
Flight instructor reports departing the runway and nosing over after taking over from his student who was over controlling after a wheel landing.