Small Aircraft; High Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 3.6; Flight Crew Total 70.3; Flight Crew Type 70.3
Communication Breakdown; Confusion
Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Airspace Structure
I was on short final; communicating on CTAF. At around half of a mile out from touchdown; during my final traffic scan; I saw a taildragger (no bigger than a Piper Cub or Cessna 150) cut me off. I noticed him flying right towards me on a quick downwind to base transition. I had been paying attention to the traffic on the radio. There was a plane that landed in front of me (but never mentioned it was a flight of two aircraft) that I was looking for because he was just exiting runway 25; the one in use. As soon as I saw the aircraft closing in on me; I initiated a go around with a hard turn to the right to get out of his way. It's hard to guess how close I was when I saw him; but I was able to clearly read his tail number. Upon landing; I did confront him about this and asked if he was communicating his intentions on CTAF; just in case he had an emergency or didn't know his radio wasn't working. He informed me that he wasn't required to have a radio in this airspace (which is true) and that he didn't have one. I firmly believe that in 2015; a radio is almost a must. Considering handhelds are cheaper than they have ever been; or so it seems; this could have been avoided if the pilot of the other aircraft had a radio. There were a lot of risk factors on this day in particular. The weather was gorgeous; aside from some gusty winds; and there were at least 3-4 aircraft in the pattern at the time. On a beautiful VFR day; people go flying. I was scanning for traffic; thankfully. If I hadn't; I'm pretty sure I would have been in the news.
A general aviation pilot reports that; while maneuvering in the traffic pattern and communicating his intentions on the CTAF frequency; he was cut off by another aircraft which was not radio equipped. This conflict resulted in a go-around.