To close for me

[Dean]

This afternoon I went out with a CFI friend of mine so he coulld get instrument current. We were doing a VOR approach to rwy 22 at a non-towered airport, but rwy 04 was the active. We called up that we were doing the VOR approach for 22 and that we were 10 miles out. We called several more time giving our position. As we were about 1/2 mile off rwy 22 at 1500' a Cherokee called turning final landing on 04. We told him where we where and he never answered. The sun was about to set and it was tuff looking into it. As we were about 1/4 mile off the rwy I saw him departing 04. I took the controls and turned left to avoid him. He turned left and started climbing. He never made any radio calls what so ever. I keyed up and thanked him for letting us know he was departing but he never responded. Not even a sorry, kiss my a$$, nothing.

 

[flyifrvfr]

This afternoon I went out with a CFI friend of mine so he coulld get instrument current. We were doing a VOR approach to rwy 22 at a non-towered airport, but rwy 04 was the active. We called up that we were doing the VOR approach for 22 and that we were 10 miles out. We called several more time giving our position. As we were about 1/2 mile off rwy 22 at 1500' a Cherokee called turning final landing on 04. We told him where we where and he never answered. The sun was about to set and it was tuff looking into it. As we were about 1/4 mile off the rwy I saw him departing 04. I took the controls and turned left to avoid him. He turned left and started climbing. He never made any radio calls what so ever. I keyed up and thanked him for letting us know he was departing but he never responded. Not even a sorry, kiss my a$$, nothing.

You have to be extra careful when conducting practice instrument approaches at a non-towered field whose active runway is the reciprocal to the runway you are approaching. I refer you to this accident which illustrates the danger you listed above.
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001212X20275&key=1

One of the best ways to conduct a practice approach like this is to discontinue the approach atleast 2 miles from the airport, or add 1,000 feet to the minimums. Doing either one of these will decrease your chances of a conflict.

I also want to remind you that you don't need a radio when operating at a non-towered airport.

 

[Dean]

I also want to remind you that you don't need a radio when operating at a non-towered airport.

I know, but he had been talking on his radio for his landing, I'm just saying it would have been nice if he would have done the same on his departure.

 

[gprellwitz]

I know, but he had been talking on his radio for his landing

Ah, you did say that. I know I missed it. Radio failure? Tuned to Unicom while on the ground? Was he T&G (I presume)? Then Unicom would make no sense.

 

[bkreager]

You get all kinds of people flying at non-towered airports, you just gotta watch you own butt and do what you did, avoid them.

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

We took off once at an untowered field and just over the fence ran into some kind of interference that blocked our transmissions for about a minute but we still could receive, and heard a few airborne guys bitchin' about what they thought was our lack of calls.

 

[Richard]

Everyone says they know about radios not required at non-towered fields but then ***** to high heaven about it. Why? Why not simply adopt the attitude that every other plane out there is out to kill you? See him before he tags you.

I've been called (expletive deleted) because I lost my ability to transmit after my initial call while departing. Does that mean I should have aborted the takeoff. Hardly.

OTOH, I much prefer NO comms over the erroneous position report in the aprt surface area. I don't care which parallel dimension you occupy, 8 east is NOT 3 west and never will be. Expect the unexpected.

 

[ScottM]

You should have ended you radio calls with "any traffic please advise" That would have gotten him to respond I'll bet!!

 

[jason]

I'd be upset too.

Just out of curiosity, why did each of you alter course to the left? 91.113(e) says both aircraft should alter their course to the right.

 

[Dean]

I'd be upset too.

Just out of curiosity, why did each of you alter course to the left? 91.113(e) says both aircraft should alter their course to the right.

When doing the VOR approach 22 you are coming in from the SE, if we each turned right it would have put us heading right at each other. We were about 200' above him and 1/4+ mile away. I don't want anyone here to think I am putting blame on him, but what would have happened if we would of been in the soup and breaking out?

 

[poadeleted20]

When doing the VOR approach 22 you are coming in from the SE

I'm not sure how a VOR RWY 22 approach can come from the southeast -- the FAA won't make an approach a straight-in if the final approach course is more than 30 degrees off the runway axis. Am I missing something here?

 

[Dean]

I'm not sure how a VOR RWY 22 approach can come from the southeast -- the FAA won't make an approach a straight-in if the final approach course is more than 30 degrees off the runway axis. Am I missing something here?

I should have explained it better, your flying a heading of 241 and cross the VOR, then decend to 1500' The approach we were doing was into VIH.
It was more from the east, not southeast.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

I know, but he had been talking on his radio for his landing, I'm just saying it would have been nice if he would have done the same on his departure.

Another possibility... He could have been on the right frequency, talking on the radio, but if his VOLUME KNOB on the radio was turned down, he'd never hear your transmissions.

That's why my run-up checklist includes pulling the squelch knob and setting the volume using the background static, on both radios... to ensure I can HEAR what others are saying!