The pilot reported that while landing at the airport in New Richmond, Wisconsin, from an introductory flight of his recently purchased Wag-a-Bond, the airplane bounced, and then when touching down again, immediately veered right.
The airplane departed the right side of the runway into the grass, subsequently nosed over, and came to rest inverted.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the vertical stabilizer, rudder, and the left wing strut. The pilot sustained minor injuries in the crash.
At the time of the accident, the pilot was landing on Runway 14 with wind calm.
The pilot reported to investigators that he had not previously landed that make and model of airplane.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control on landing, which resulted in a runway excursion and subsequent nose-over. Contributing was the pilot’s lack of experience in the accident airplane.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This October 2020 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Over confident and apparent lack of a tail wheel cert, at least it is not in the report. Flying any aircraft requires establishing muscle memory for the particular aircraft. This is in addition to having aeronautical knowledge and other flight experience. That’s what transition training is all about. Developing muscle memory (eye-hand coordination). Sometimes that takes a little longer for an older pilot (I know from experience with tail wheel training). At least he was not injured, that’s the good news.