Was trying to chase down the source of my radio noise.
I had done my runup in a pad somewhat separate from the
entry point to the active runway, 34. My airport has a
single ~3800 foot long runway. Winds were calm, 34 is
the designated no-wind runway. Temperature was about
45F.
Taxied up to the hold-short line. In the distance, I
could see a Cessna just turning final. Close enough
that I figured I'd wait.
Interesting approach. The plane looked low, to
me. A few seconds later, the pilot announced that she
was going around.
I craned my neck to watch the Cessna as it passed overhead,
monitoring it to see if was actually going to try pull off a
landing. Looked like it wasn't.
Punched the mike button. "Auburn traffic, Fly Baby
Eight-Four-Eight departing 34, heading eastbound."
Rolled onto the runway, lined up, and punched the throttle.
When I raised the tail, I could see trouble ahead. The
airport service truck, at the left edge of the runway.
"Fixing a runway light?" my mind guessed.
Then I realized the truck was moving...and had just entered
the runway in front of me.
Oh, truck.
My tail was up, the plane light on its wheels.
Continue? Abort? Probably still had a thousand feet to
go.
Then I saw the truck dodge away, off the runway. A
half-second later, I was off the ground and climbing.
I was probably ~100 feet up, well clear of him.
Basically dismissed it from my mind, then. It was last
minute's crisis, was more interested in wondering why the
ignition noise had stopped at full throttle.
After I got home, I got an email from the young man driving
the truck. We had an interesting exchange, regarding
the incident.
He had made a radio call about entering the runway...which I
hadn't heard. Normally, I *do* hear the calls from the
truck. Was it due to my ignition noise; was the squelch so
high that my radio didn't receive the signal from the
handheld inside the truck cab?
The second thing, he HADN'T HEARD MY TAKEOFF CALL. My
ignition issues shouldn't have affected transmission, and he
did say he heard the rest of my radio calls that
afternoon. I do recall hearing the sidetone from my
first transmission, as I occasionally have connector
problems (albeit not in the headset I was wearing) and
monitor my first call to ensure I'm getting a signal
out. But he didn't hear it.
It wasn't until later we realized what had happened.
We had "walked on" each other's transmission...transmitted
at the same time, thus neither of us heard the other.
The third thing? He was watching the go-around
traffic, too. It's possible it was distracting both of us.
Thinking about the day, I remembered keeping a close eye on
that go-around Cessna. As she got far enough down the
runway to be sure she wasn't landing, I started forward,
looking closely at the final approach area to ensure another
plane wasn't on final. Then, as I made the 90-degree turn to
line up with the centerline, I scanned down the runway to
see if there were any aircraft on it. I was looking
for vertical tails, or even the local flight-school
helicopters air-taxiing across to the helipad on the far
side of the runway.
Don't recall seeing the white airport truck. But...if
I had, I may have unconsciously ignored it. It was
just the airport truck, I was used to seeing it sitting on
the opposite side of the runway.
By the time I was lined up for takeoff, of course, I
couldn't see anything forward, due to the taildragger stance
of the aircraft. When the tail came up, there it was.
Today, I remembered another factor. When I taxied out,
I don't recall seeing the truck on the opposite side of the
runway. Normally, I notice the airport equipment when it was
out. But I was taxiing south, right at a low-hanging
sun. I had my hand up to shade my eyes, but was more
interested in picking out any taxiway blockage in the glare
rather than rubbernecking around. If I *had* noticed the
truck, I probably would have re-checked his position prior
to taking the runway.
Lot of luck going our way. I had plenty of room to
climb or abort, whether he'd left the runway or not.
He was driving *towards* the departure end, and saw me
starting my takeoff run and bolted out of the way.
We've talked about the failure of communication. The
airport worker is a pilot as well, so he recognizes that
radios are a tool that can't always be counted on. He
flew out of an ag field where the crop-dusters never talked
on the radio. I used to tell people not to mix up
their Italians while flying... airplanes fly by Bernoulli,
not Marconi. Then some SOB informed me Bernoulli was
Swiss.....
Radios are a tool; they should never be a crutch.
Sometimes, we need to be reminded of that.
Lot of high-profile midairs this year...even this
week. It would be just Fly Baby luck to have had a
midair with a GMC Truck. Undoubtedly survivable, but the
embarrassment probably would have been fatal.
We both learned lessons yesterday. The best kind...the
ones paid for with a slightly elevated heart rate and a
"there I wuz" story afterwards.
Be careful out there, folks....
Ron Wanttaja
Return to the Stories Pag