Champion Citabria Undifferentiated
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 21; Flight Crew Total 2754; Flight Crew Type 323
Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control; Ground Excursion Runway
Human Factors
The student had previous tail-wheel experience; but hadn't flown in years. The private pilot flew from the front seat and the instructor flew from the back. He had logged [a few] hours of instruction with me and [over ten] takeoffs and landings prior to the incident flight. I judged that he was doing well considering the length of time since he had last flown.We were conducting a training flight in a Champion 7EC Champ. The wind was calm to 20 degrees crosswind at 4 knots. We departed the airport to work on some warm-up maneuvers before returning to practice 3-point landings on runway XX. The student completed 1 successfully to a full stop and on his second landing; shortly upon touchdown; the plane departed to the left side of the runway in a ground loop. There were no injuries.Based on my inspection of the aircraft; the damage does not rise to the level of an accident as defined by NTSB Part 830; but the FAA has not made a final determination to date.Prior to the flight before engine start; I stood outside the plane with the student in position in the front seat and noticed that his feet were too high on the pedals and partially on the toe brakes. I cautioned him to move his feet down so that his heels were on the kick plates and to be careful to keep off the brakes when taking off or landing. Though the touchdown was straight; the plane immediately went left off the runway. Because of the immediacy of the runway excursion upon touchdown I suspect that the student had inadvertently moved a foot up onto the toe brakes. To prevent a similar occurrence in the future on final approach; I will add 'Brakes' (meaning feet off brakes) to the audible checklist I use: 'Airspeed/Obstacles/Touchdown Zone/Brakes'.
Instructor Pilot reported a runway excursion during a training flight.