Amateur/Home Built/Experimental
Maintenance Powerplant; Maintenance Airframe
Situational Awareness
Conflict Ground Conflict; Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged
Human Factors
A pilot had just taken possession of a homebuilt and asked me to act as ground crew for his first solo aboard the plane. His stated intention was to make one low pass over the field and then a single landing. The aircraft was not equipped with a starter so I pulled the prop. He taxied to the runup area and I followed as far as the wash rack in my car. After a few minutes he taxied back to the wash rack with concerns about his engine runup. After addressing these concerns I started his engine again and he took off. He made two passes over the runway before attempting a landing. During the rollout the plane veered slightly to the right and nosed over. I ran to the plane to see if he was hurt. He insisted that he was not hurt; righted his plane; and began to push it off of the runway to the taxiway. I helped him push it as far as the wash rack when another gentleman who was washing his plane took my place and helped him push his plane back to his hangar.Seeing that there was debris on the runway; I used a handheld radio to alert traffic that the 'Runway is fouled.' One aircraft in the pattern acknowledged my alert and aborted his landing. I got back in my car; drove to the pilot's hangar; got a push broom and returned to the runway. In this time three other aircraft had taxied to the runup area. I radioed that the runway was fouled and that I was going to clean it up. The pilots of the three waiting aircraft did not acknowledge my transmission. I drove my car onto the runway to the debris and parked cross-wise assuming this would make the vehicle as visible as possible. I got out and swept the wood and metal parts off of the asphalt.As I finished sweeping the debris from the runway (perhaps a 3 minute task) the first of the three aircraft waiting to takeoff took to the runway. I got off of the runway as fast as possible while all three aircraft took off over my head in quick succession (all three aircraft on the runway at the same time). I was then stopped and questioned by a Sheriff's deputy. He told me that he had gotten a call that there was a vehicle on the runway and made it clear that I did not have authorization to drive on an active runway and that I should have called the County office that operates the airport instead of acting on my own.
A mechanic witnessed a minor accident on the runway of the small county airport and went out to the runway to clean up the debris. After several aircraft took off over his head a Sheriff drove up and advised him he should not be out there.