Narrative:

I flew a normal pattern; performed the before landing checklist; and crossed the runway threshold at 65-70 KIAS and correctly positioned on both the glide slope and the runway centerline. I performed a normal landing and touched down 3-5 ft left of centerline in a slightly nose-high attitude; since I was slow to correct for a slight right crosswind. After the nose wheel came down and the airplane had rolled straight down the runway for 2-3 seconds; I intended to apply gentle right rudder pressure to correct back to centerline. While doing so; I must have caught the right brake with my toe. The airplane veered sharply to the right; and the right main gear lifted 1-2 ft off the ground. By the time I got the right main gear back on the ground; I did not have enough room to execute a left turn to keep the airplane on the runway and did not want the right main gear to go off the side of the runway while in a left turn. So; I departed the runway over the right edge with the yoke back as far as it would go. I secured the engine; and the airplane stopped in the grass several seconds later. The airplane was undamaged. To prevent this from happening; I could have landed directly on the centerline; waited for the airplane to slow down more before beginning even a gentle turn; or not contacted the brake pedal during the turn. Finally; if I had kept the yoke farther back after touchdown to keep weight off the nose wheel I may have had better directional control.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C-182 departed a CTAF runway after the pilot mistakenly touched a brake as he was intending to push rudder in order to correct a crosswind drift during landing roll out.

Narrative: I flew a normal pattern; performed the before landing checklist; and crossed the runway threshold at 65-70 KIAS and correctly positioned on both the glide slope and the runway centerline. I performed a normal landing and touched down 3-5 FT left of centerline in a slightly nose-high attitude; since I was slow to correct for a slight right crosswind. After the nose wheel came down and the airplane had rolled straight down the runway for 2-3 seconds; I intended to apply gentle right rudder pressure to correct back to centerline. While doing so; I must have caught the right brake with my toe. The airplane veered sharply to the right; and the right main gear lifted 1-2 FT off the ground. By the time I got the right main gear back on the ground; I did not have enough room to execute a left turn to keep the airplane on the runway and did not want the right main gear to go off the side of the runway while in a left turn. So; I departed the runway over the right edge with the yoke back as far as it would go. I secured the engine; and the airplane stopped in the grass several seconds later. The airplane was undamaged. To prevent this from happening; I could have landed directly on the centerline; waited for the airplane to slow down more before beginning even a gentle turn; or not contacted the brake pedal during the turn. Finally; if I had kept the yoke farther back after touchdown to keep weight off the nose wheel I may have had better directional control.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.