Experimental pilot reports discovering on the takeoff roll that a citabria that he thought had left ...

Narrative:

The weather was clear; unlimited visibility with light winds from the east. During a short briefing earlier runway xx was declared the active runway unless winds change. Many aircraft had arrived since; and all of them used runway xx. I taxied north on the taxiway to the end of runway xx and after finishing my runup I made a radio call: '[callsign] taking runway xx for takeoff...'; but as I turned right to enter runway xx and line up I noticed to my surprise a yellow citabria taxiing south on the runway towards its south end; without making a call. It then turned right which looked from my perspective as it was leaving the runway into the grass parking on the west side of the runway; and disappeared from my view behind the peak of the slightly crested runway. The ends of the runway are not visible from either takeoff position in a small airplane. After believing the other plane had cleared the runway and no radio call came from it; I finished lining up and made another call: '[callsign] takeoff runway xx for south departure'. I accelerated and as soon as the tail came up I saw to my horror the citabria accelerating towards me. There was a row of airplanes parked to the right and I remembered the grass to the left was used as a runway; so I veered left between 2 taxi lights and at the same time brought the plane into ground effect; now heading for a line of trees. Fortunately I just had enough speed to climb without stalling and made (according to witness accounts) a rather spectacular steep and turning takeoff. The rest of the flight went as planned and upon return the other pilot approached me with a sheepish grin to shake my hand. Although still upset I took it and asked him to please use his radio and stay on the same page with everybody else; using the preferred runway. His only comment was that it turned out all right anyway. Unrelated to the incident the runway was later changed to runway Y; because the wind turned to north east. Fortunately no damage occurred and nobody was hurt.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Experimental pilot reports discovering on the takeoff roll that a Citabria that he thought had left the runway is taking off in the opposite direction. Evasive action is taken by the reporter; steering off the left side of the runway and becoming airborne shortly thereafter.

Narrative: The weather was clear; unlimited visibility with light winds from the east. During a short briefing earlier Runway XX was declared the active runway unless winds change. Many aircraft had arrived since; and all of them used Runway XX. I taxied north on the taxiway to the end of Runway XX and after finishing my runup I made a radio call: '[Callsign] taking Runway XX for takeoff...'; but as I turned right to enter Runway XX and line up I noticed to my surprise a yellow Citabria taxiing south on the runway towards its south end; without making a call. It then turned right which looked from my perspective as it was leaving the runway into the grass parking on the west side of the runway; and disappeared from my view behind the peak of the slightly crested runway. The ends of the runway are not visible from either takeoff position in a small airplane. After believing the other plane had cleared the runway and no radio call came from it; I finished lining up and made another call: '[Callsign] takeoff Runway XX for south departure'. I accelerated and as soon as the tail came up I saw to my horror the Citabria accelerating towards me. There was a row of airplanes parked to the right and I remembered the grass to the left was used as a runway; so I veered left between 2 taxi lights and at the same time brought the plane into ground effect; now heading for a line of trees. Fortunately I just had enough speed to climb without stalling and made (according to witness accounts) a rather spectacular steep and turning takeoff. The rest of the flight went as planned and upon return the other pilot approached me with a sheepish grin to shake my hand. Although still upset I took it and asked him to please use his radio and stay on the same page with everybody else; using the preferred runway. His only comment was that it turned out all right anyway. Unrelated to the incident the runway was later changed to Runway Y; because the wind turned to north east. Fortunately no damage occurred and nobody was hurt.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1109552
Time
Date	201308
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Amateur/Home Built/Experimental
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	None
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Champion Citabria 7ECA
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 20 Flight Crew Total 900 Flight Crew Type 600
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Ground Conflict Critical
Miss Distance	Horizontal 50 Vertical 20

Experimental pilot reports discovering on the takeoff roll that a citabria that he thought had left the runway is taking off in the opposite direction. Evasive action is taken by the reporter; steering off the left side of the runway and becoming airborne shortly thereafter.