General aviation pilot reported a near miss while on final approach at a non-towered airport with another aircraft landing in the opposite direction. The pilot maneuvered and performed a go-around to avoid the conflict.

Date: 2024-02 · Aircraft: Small Aircraft; Low Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear · Phase: approach

Anomalies: conflict-ground-conflict|critical|conflict-airborne-conflict|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|ground-incursion-runway|inflight-event-encounter-weather-turbulence

Synopsis

General aviation pilot reported a near miss while on final approach at a non-towered airport with another aircraft landing in the opposite direction. The pilot maneuvered and performed a go-around to avoid the conflict.

Narrative

While on a personal flight with a passenger new to flying to get dinner with friends at I74 in [Aircraft X]; I was forced to execute a go-around and side step maneuver just as I crossed the numbers of runway 02 due to a oncoming [Aircraft Y] landing runway 20 and crossing the numbers of 20 at the exact same time. The winds were about 010 8-10 knots both indicated by the windsock; the AWOS and the metar as shown on my EFB. I began monitoring CTAF about 15 miles out and self-announced at 10 miles out and then at 5 miles out then 2 miles out that I would be 'crossing midfield for left downwind entry runway zero 2'. I then announced that I was 'entering left downwind zero two' then announced 'left base zero two' then 'turning final zero two'. As I was on final about 300 AGL my friend noticed an airplane on the opposite end of the airport that appeared to be coming in to land runway 20. As he pointed that out me as I had briefed him to look for traffic and anything unusual and to let me know prior to departing I immediately made the radio call 'Aircraft X short final zero two.' The airplane appeared to overshoot final by quite a bit so I thought maybe it was a low approach; circle to land arrival on the RNAV 20 or possibly a plane landing on the adjacent grass runway. As I approach 50 feet AGL and the threshold of the runway the oncoming plane then veered onto final for runway 20 and proceeded to cross the numbers about the same that I did and proceeded to land. As I saw him veer onto final; I immediately initiated a go-around and side stepped to the right. Once stable on the go-around I made the radio call 'Landing traffic at Urbana how do you hear?' No response. We observed the plane land and then heard the radio call from the landing plane 'Aircraft Z clear of runway 20'. Again I called with no response. My plan was to land and discuss the incident with the pilot but by the time I landed somehow he had managed to get his plane into a hangar somewhere and he was no where to be found. My friends who were not far behind us heard all of our transmissions and we heard transmissions from other traffic so we ruled out any radio issues. I am thankful that my passenger who was on their first flight listened to my briefing and had good eyes outside while I was focused on landing and wasn't afraid to speak up. To this day I can't understand why a pilot would land opposite traffic with a 10 knot tailwind and ignore radio calls as well as fail to make any radio calls until clearing the runway. I was able to see the flight aware from the other plane and it appears that he simply made left traffic for runway 20 as it was convenient for him as he was coming from the south. One factor I believe may have contributed to this near miss is the runway numbering. Having Zero Two and Two Zero can make it confusing.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.