1994-09 · NASA ASRS report 281785
NMAC AT UNCTLED ARPT BTWN 2 SMA SEL ACFT; ONE TAKING OFF AND THE OTHER APCHING TO LAND.
WHILE TAXIING ON THE S PARALLEL TXWY TO THE RWY 32 RUN-UP AREA; S COUNTY; IN CESSNA SKYHAWK X. I OBSERVED A WHITE BEECHCRAFT SKIPPER EXECUTE A BALKED LNDG FOR RWY 32; S COUNTY. MY STUDENT POSITIONED THE ACFT IN THE RWY 32 RUNUP AREA; AND COMPLETED THE PRETKOF CHKLIST. THE SKIPPER'S PLT WAS ANNOUNCING HER POS ON UNICOM FREQ 122.7; WHICH WE WERE ALSO USING. THE PLT SPOKE WITH A HVY ACCENT; WHICH I BELIEVE TO BE JAPANESE. THE SKIPPER'S PLT USED THE CALL SIGN WHICH I UNDERSTOOD TO BY Y. NO OTHER ACFT WERE OBSERVED IN THE TFC PATTERN OR HEARD TO ANNOUNCE THEIR POS ON UNICOM. DURING THE COMPLETION OF THE BEFORE TKOF CHKLIST; I HEARD THE SKIPPER RPT TURNING TO THE DOWNWIND RWY 32; S COUNTY. A CESSNA 150 OR 152 WAS TAXIING ON THE N PARALLEL TXWY OF RWY 32 AND HELD SHORT OF THE RWY IMMEDIATELY AFTER WE POSITIONED OURSELVES HOLDING SHORT OF RWY 32. I NOW OBSERVED THE SKIPPER ABEAM THE ARR END OF RWY 32 ON THE DOWNWIND. JUDGING FROM THE SKIPPER'S POS; CONTINUING ON THE DOWNWIND LEG; AND AFTER VISUALLY CHKING THE BASE AND FINAL APCH SEGMENTS OF THE TFC PATTERN; I DETERMINED THERE TO BE ADEQUATE SEPARATION FOR OUR TKOF AND I ANNOUNCED OVER UNICOM FREQ 122.7 OUR INTENTION TO TAKE RWY 32; S COUNTY. I INSTRUCTED THE STUDENT TO TAKE THE RWY. WHILE TAXIING ONTO THE RWY; I HEARD THE SKIPPER ANNOUNCE HER TURN TO THE BASE LEG. I ANNOUNCED THAT SKYHAWK X WAS DEPARTING RWY 32; S COUNTY. THE STUDENT WAS CONDUCTING A SIMULATED SOFT FIELD TKOF. NO ANNOUNCEMENT WAS HEARD BY EITHER THE STUDENT OR MYSELF OF THE SKIPPER'S TURN ONTO THE FINAL APCH FOR RWY 32. SHORTLY AFTER BREAKING GND; DURING THE CLBOUT OF GND EFFECT; I HEARD THE FOLLOWING CALL OVER THE UNICOM FREQ: 'CESSNA JUST DEPARTED S COUNTY; THERE'S AN ACFT RIGHT ABOVE YOU. I IMMEDIATELY TOOK CTL OF THE ACFT AND INITIATED AN EVASIVE 45 DEG TURN TO MY L AND HELD MY CURRENT ALT OF APPROX 250 FT AGL. I SCANNED THE AREA ABOVE US AND TO MY R; LOOKING FOR THE ACFT. I WAS UNABLE TO SEE THE OTHER ACFT. I RETURNED MY VIEW TO THE DEP AREA SW OF THEDEP AREA OF RWY 32 TO ENSURE OBSTACLE CLRNC AND COMMENCED A CLB TO 500 FT AGL. I THEN RETURNED MY SCAN TO THE AREA TO MY R; AGAIN I WAS UNABLE TO SEE THE OTHER ACFT OR ITS SHADOW; WHICH I ALSO LOOKED FOR. MY PRIMARY STUDENT OF APPROX 12 HRS; MENTIONED DURING THE CLBOUT FROM THE EVASIVE MANEUVER THAT HE DID SEE THE OTHER ACFT WHICH HE IDENTED AS A WHITE SKIPPER. THE STUDENT RPTED THAT THE SKIPPER WAS TO THE N SIDE OF THE RWY AND ABOVE US. DURING OUR FLT DEBRIEFING; I ASKED THE STUDENT IF THE OTHER ACFT WAS LESS THAN 500 FT FROM OUR ACFT. THE STUDENT WAS SOMEWHAT UNSURE BUT THOUGHT THE OTHER ACFT WAS MORE THAN 500 FT FROM OUR ACFT. AT AN ESTIMATED DISTANCE OF 2000 FT FROM THE RWY EXTENDED CTRLINE; I IMMEDIATELY BEGAN A CLB AT BEST ANGLE-OF-CLB SPD FOR TERRAIN CLRNC. AT THIS TIME; I AGAIN SCANNED FOR THE OTHER ACFT; LIFTING THE R-HAND WING; BUT NONE WERE SIGHTED. DURING OUR CLB; I MONITORED THE UNICOM FREQ; BUT I DID NOT HEAR ANY ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE SKIPPER. I CONTINUED TO MONITOR THE UNICOM FREQ; WHILE I OBTAINED OUR DEST ATIS (SJC); AND DURING THE SUBSEQUENT CALL TO BAY APCH FOR ENTRY INTO THE APCHING CLASS C AIRSPACE. NO FURTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS ON UNICOM WERE HEARD. I CAN ONLY CONCLUDE THAT THE SKIPPER'S PLT MADE AN IMMEDIATE TURN FROM THE DOWNWIND TO BASE TURN DIRECTLY TO THE RWY WITHOUT MAKING AN ANNOUNCEMENT. AS WE ENTERED THE RWY; OUR VIEW OF THE SKIPPER WOULD HAVE BEEN BLOCKED BY THE R- HAND WING. ANOTHER POSSIBILITY IS THAT AS SOON AS WE TOOK RWY 32; THE SKIPPER BEGAN A SHORT APCH TO RWY 32. HER ANNOUNCEMENT OF TURNING ONTO THE BASE LEG COULD HAVE BEEN INCORRECT AND THAT ACTUALLY; SHE WAS TURNING ONTO THE FINAL APCH. (BOTH THE STUDENT AND MYSELF HEARD HER ANNOUNCEMENT ONTO THE 'BASE LEG'). FROM THE POS OF THE SKIPPER I OBSERVED BEFORE ENTERING THE RWY; THE SKIPPER WOULD HAVE HAD TO HAVE MADE A VERY SHARP AND IMMEDIATE TURN DIRECTLY TO THE ARR END OF RWY 32. TO PREVENT A RECURRENCE; I HAVE REVIEWED THE AIM CONCERNING OPS AT AN UNCTLED FIELD. ALSO; MY STUDENT AND I HAVE REVIEWED NORMAL OPERATING PROCS AT AN UNCTLED FIELD; AND THE USE OF THE UNICOM FREQ IN COLLISION AVOIDANCE TECHNIQUES. WE ALSO DISCUSSED THE POTENTIAL HAZARDS OF COLLISION ASSOCIATED WITH THE HIGH-WING/LOW-WING SIT WHICH HAD JUST DEVELOPED. WE ALSO DISCUSSED THE PLT'S AUTH DURING AN EMER SUCH AS THE ONE WHICH HAD JUST OCCURRED. ALSO DISCUSSED; WAS THE ROLE OF THE OTHER PLT; WHO; WITH MUCH FORESIGHT; OBSERVED AND NOTIFIED US OF THE OTHER ACFT.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.