A pilot departed ftg at night and immediately after takeoff had a near miss with an aircraft which a...

Narrative:

I left front range airport in the late evening with my wife and two children on board. I watched an emergency helicopter takeoff from ramp and then started my airplane and announced that I was taxing from the ramp to the runway. The tower closed so I was announcing my positions as I would for a non controlled airport. I announced that I was going to back taxi runway 8 as the taxiway for [runway] 8 was under construction. Upon nearing the end and announcing that I was taking off of runway 8 with an eastbound departure. I headed down the runway; as I was getting near the end of the runway I could see two dim red lights that appeared to be coming at me and I doubled checked to see that my landing light was on and it was. My traffic on the garmin popped up that traffic was head on and I pushed the throttle forward pulled up and slightly to the right as it appeared he went right under me 100-200 ft. I immediately got on the radio and questioned what was going on and no response. Then I asked for a radio check thinking maybe my radio. Someone answered that it came in loud and clear and that they were in the hangar area. I assume it was one of those emergency helicopter pilots as he said they were on the ground by the hangars; so I know my radio was working. Then in a couple minutes I heard what sounded like a foreign accent come on the radio and ask if I was doing pattern work; to which I replied no I am eastbound. I was on the radio announcing my position at least 4 times and never a response once. First of all this airport is just a few miles from den; so a radio is a must and they were on final without a landing light or strobe. I can't recall seeing a beacon but not for sure. I know the tower was closed but in class D airspace it is imperative that people use their radios. I have flown into the airports of denver for over 5 years now and never had anything like this happen; I say they need to run that tower 24 hours again if the safety that close to denver international can't be regulated better.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A pilot departed FTG at night and immediately after takeoff had a near miss with an aircraft which apparently had neither navigation nor landing lights on and also not making CTAF radio announcements.

Narrative: I left Front Range airport in the late evening with my wife and two children on board. I watched an emergency helicopter takeoff from ramp and then started my airplane and announced that I was taxing from the ramp to the runway. The Tower closed so I was announcing my positions as I would for a non controlled airport. I announced that I was going to back taxi Runway 8 as the taxiway for [Runway] 8 was under construction. Upon nearing the end and announcing that I was taking off of Runway 8 with an eastbound departure. I headed down the runway; as I was getting near the end of the runway I could see two dim red lights that appeared to be coming at me and I doubled checked to see that my landing light was on and it was. My traffic on the Garmin popped up that traffic was head on and I pushed the throttle forward pulled up and slightly to the right as it appeared he went right under me 100-200 FT. I immediately got on the radio and questioned what was going on and no response. Then I asked for a radio check thinking maybe my radio. Someone answered that it came in loud and clear and that they were in the hangar area. I assume it was one of those emergency helicopter pilots as he said they were on the ground by the hangars; so I know my radio was working. Then in a couple minutes I heard what sounded like a foreign accent come on the radio and ask if I was doing pattern work; to which I replied no I am eastbound. I was on the radio announcing my position at least 4 times and never a response once. First of all this airport is just a few miles from DEN; so a radio is a must and they were on final without a landing light or strobe. I can't recall seeing a beacon but not for sure. I know the Tower was closed but in Class D airspace it is imperative that people use their radios. I have flown into the airports of Denver for over 5 years now and never had anything like this happen; I say they need to run that Tower 24 hours again if the safety that close to Denver International can't be regulated better.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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	1176421
Time
Date	201405
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	FTG.Airport
State Reference	CO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft High Wing 1 Eng Retractable Gear
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	None
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Helicopter
Flight Phase	Landing
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 20 Flight Crew Total 400 Flight Crew Type 325
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Miss Distance	Vertical 200

A pilot departed ftg at night and immediately after takeoff had a near miss with an aircraft which apparently had neither navigation nor landing lights on and also not making CTAF radio announcements.