Definition
A control input that exceeds what is needed to correct a deviation, causing the airplane to swing past the intended path or attitude and creating a new deviation in the opposite direction.
Plain English
You pushed the rudder, aileron, or other control too far while trying to fix something, and now the airplane has gone too far the other way.
Context Anchor
Seen in ground handling, takeoff roll, landing rollout, and ground loop discussions, especially when small swings can quickly become larger swings.
Derivation
From 'over-' (too much) and 'correction' (an adjustment to fix something). The word literally means an adjustment that goes too far.
Why Pilots Care
Overcorrection rapidly escalates minor runway deviations into full ground loops, leading to loss of control, propeller strikes, or runway excursions.
Analogy
Like yanking the steering wheel hard when a car drifts slightly on wet pavement—the vehicle fishtails violently the other way.
Intuition Check
Overcorrection does not mean any correction that fails. It means the correction was too large, too abrupt, too late, or held too long for the amount of error being corrected.
Example Sentence 1
During the crosswind landing rollout, the student overcorrected with rudder and the airplane began swerving from one side of the centerline to the other.
Example Sentence 2
Smooth, proportional rudder inputs prevent overcorrection when a crosswind gust begins to weather-vane the nose during rollout.