Small Aircraft; High Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 45; Flight Crew Total 129; Flight Crew Type 84
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Distraction; Time Pressure
Conflict Ground Conflict; Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors; Procedure
After a pleasant day of flying with my wife for breakfast we headed to X35 to fuel up before returning to the hanger at my home airport. Approximately 5 NM southwest of X35; I called our position and heard one other aircraft in the area who called his position as 6-7 northwest inbound as well. I entered a left downwind for Runway 28 and the second aircraft entered the pattern #2 behind me about 1 minute later. There was no other radio traffic noted. The turn to base and final were both called and while on short final a Citabria was noted taxiing toward the hold short line at Runway 28. I expected him to perform his runup at that location; but the aircraft never slowed and taxied directly onto the runway and began his takeoff roll. While affecting an emergency go around; I called and tried to notify him he had pulled directly in front of traffic on short final; but there was no response. I paralleled Runway 28 to the right as I cleaned up the plane and started to ascend upwind. During that time the Citabria took off and began a climb immediately to my left and at no time did the pilot of that aircraft appear to notice the situation had taken place. I allowed the other plane to climb into the pattern and I settled in #2 outside of his downwind so I could clearly keep him in sight. I again attempted to query him regarding his intentions and again there was no answer. The pilot of the C182 which entered the pattern initially behind me stated he had witnessed the entire event and his opinion was the Citabria pilot had never looked prior to taxiing out and did not appear to have a functional radio. The Citabria left the pattern to the southeast and I continued with a successful landing at that time. The time separation between our two aircraft closed to within approximately 6-10 seconds at the time of the incident. Too close!
A pilot was on short final to CTAF X35 Runway 28 reported a near miss with an aircraft not making the FAA recommended CTAF position reports as it departed.