This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
My student and I were in the pattern. After our initial takeoff and climb-out I was instructing my student on patterns and proper procedures.
I heard on the radio two aircraft in the area. Aircraft Y was calling a 10-mile final for Runway 5 and I heard Aircraft Z make a taking off Runway 14 call.
The winds at the time were favoring Runway 5. My student and I had already made a previous takeoff and landing on Runway 5 for pattern practice.
After I had heard the plane taking off Runway 14 I actively tried to search for him and could not spot him, so I started to divert my attention to the other aircraft landing on Runway 5.
My student starts to turn base when the Aircraft Y calls a 5-mile final behind us.
We continue down to the runway and make a safe landing. We come to a full stop on the runway to clean up the airplane and make a very short debrief because Aircraft Y landing behind us was on a 1-mile final as he made a radio call.
We make a radio call that we are departing Runway 5 and staying in the pattern.
At this point, I am making sure that my student is doing the proper procedure on takeoff. We were approximately 10 knots below our rotation speed when I look up and to my left and notice that there is an aircraft taking off on Runway 14 and we are on a direct collision course if no action is taken by either pilot.
I immediately abort the takeoff by quickly pulling the throttle to idle and applying full brakes and taking the controls from my student.
We start coming to a stop when I announce on the radio that we aborting the takeoff because of Aircraft Z departing 14. We come to a stop on the runway and watch Aircraft Z continue their takeoff and continue to not make any radio calls.
Aircraft Y, I believe, was on the ground and makes an “on the go” call and departs the area to the south. Aircraft Z departs the area and we continue our lesson with no further incident.
Later after the flight, the pilot of the Aircraft Y contacted me on my cell and we filled each other in. I could tell that my aborting the takeoff and his subsequent go-around really shook him up by the sound of his voice. We talked on the phone about each other’s perspectives and he said that because of the departing Aircraft Z and my aborted takeoff on his go-around he almost stalled the airplane and crashed it behind me or into our aircraft. He was going to stay in the pattern behind us, but decided to go back to his airport after the event.
This event, I believe, may have been prevented in a couple of ways.
The Aircraft Z pilot should have been listening to the radio and should have heard that there was a plane already in the pattern and a plane landing on Runway 5. They should not have taken off of the runway they did. They could have waited until both aircraft were safely out of the way and back into the air before departing the runway.
There is a chance that during my instruction with my student that I may have missed the radio call by the Aircraft Z. I maybe should have stopped talking and listened.
Aircraft Y also could have given me a bit more time to assess my situation and give my student and me some more time to take back off.
Primary Problem: Human Factors
ACN: 1911233
Newbie question; could a possible issue be a delayed takeoff from Runway 14? It struck me as odd that after hearing the call, although no mention is made of where the CFI was in the pattern, Aircraft Z was still sitting on 14 and had no taken off yet. Just trying to learn!
I too have had some experience with frequency difficulties, especially when two airports are differed by only .05 Mhz., even when they are 20nm apart. Haven’t done it myself….yet…
A stop and go should never be done with traffic behind you, period. A landing aircraft always has a responsibility to clear the runway as soon as practicable if there is following traffic, either by taxiing clear of the runway or by performing a touch and go.
This situation is what bothers me about the advent of RNAV and resultant abundance of RNAV approaches at non-towered airports. It strikes me that these approaches generally require a long straight-in to the landing runway. This is in complete conflict with AC 90-66B, in which the proper procedure is stated to involved a mid-field flyover followed by an entry to downwind at pattern altitude. It’s written that in the event of a potential conflict, pilots practicing instrument approaches do not automatically have the right-of-way, and they should exercise extra vigilance due to the straight-in nature of the approach if other traffic is in the area.
The AC encourages use of the 45 degree entry, not the mid-field entry.
“We come to a full stop on the runway to clean up the airplane and make a very short debrief because Aircraft Y landing behind us was on a 1-mile final as he made a radio call.”
How “short” was “short”?
I didn’t catch that the CFI announced his/her intentions to do a “Stop & Go”….regardless, at a non-towered airport, without total “global SA” on traffic….don’t.
Several issues here. 1. One aircraft working from a crosswind runway the instructor lost and chose to ignore. 2. Stopping on the runway with another aircraft on short final. 3. Another pilot choosing to ignore common courtesy and common practice by flying a 10 mile final.
#3 is a real pet peeve. That’s a lazy pilot’s way of saying “Here I come. Everyone else should get out of my way as I won’t be bothered to deal with traffic.” Failing to fly a proper pattern put two of the aircraft at risk in the second situation in this story. Had this guy flown a pattern, he would have known where the other aircraft were located. While on final, he should have clearly seen there was an aircraft stopped on final and been preparing to go around. He also should have seen the conflicting cross traffic. In that scenario, rather than forcing a landing, go around the pattern while things settle out, then land.
#2 is bad practice. You have someone on final. Never trust the distance someone calls on final. It may be estimated, or it may be GPS… from the center of the field, making a 1 mile final according to his GPS approaching a 1 mile runway, to be actually 1/2 mile. Either exit the runway or do a touch and go, but don’t stop while you have another aircraft on final.
The second scenario was set up by both the instructor and the pilot flying a cross country final.
#1 You don’t just ignore traffic because you couldn’t find them. Really? Finding that traffic would have avoided the first situation.
Instructor is at fault here. Reports always complain about the other pilot not transmitting… or possibly I missed his transmission. Radios fail, pilots dial up the wrong frequency, and there are still aircraft without radios. And lots of aircraft have weak or scratchy radios. See and avoid is still the regulation. That is your job Mr CFI, as well as the job of the apparently NORDO aircraft. You both failed.
It is frightening how many pilots, and especially CFI’s, are dependent on radios. Besides them not being required at uncontrolled fields, pilots can and do tune into the wrong frequencies every now and then. (I’ve done it and I’m sure others have too.)
This near miss is 100% on the CFI.
Most of these reports involving traffic pattern issues do tend to point a finger at the other pilot. But the reporting pilot is the one in this case who needed to assure that his stop-and-go was not going to cause a problem behind him or in front of him and realistically in all cases you have to fly defensively plus not cause an issue for someone else. How could Aircraft Y (the one following him) have given him more time for his delay on the runway? If they had had a conversation and Aircraft Y assured him a stop-and-go was ok, then fine. But otherwise, there’s a good reason the AIM says “after landing and reaching taxi speed. a. Exit the runway without delay at the first available taxiway”.
Interesting. I think we have all had issues on airports with crossing runways, but I question the wisdom of making a full stop on any runway with a plane behind me on a one mile final. Seems like too much could go wrong with that scenario.
But then again, I always could quarterback the Dallas Cowboys from my armchair. 🙂
Hmmmm… I’m thinking that if you cannot locate a departing aircraft from a crossing runway from a “bird’s eye” view of 1000 ft above it, aaaannnd you don’t have a good idea regarding the approach speed of an aircraft on final aaaand you’ll be tying up the runway doing touch and goes…. well… NOT landing seems like the best option to me until you can see everything.