Narrative:

Jwn airport (with a single runway) was undergoing major construction and had no parallel taxiway; plus the only exit from the runway was a single narrow taxiway at the end of runway 02 leading between some hangars to and from FBO. No operating control tower- only unicom. Before departure I asked in the FBO what the active runway was; and the reply was that 'people are taking off on runway 02 and landing on runway 20 to avoid a back taxi on a long runway'. Taxiing out to runway 02 for departure I encountered another low wing southeast airplane near the runway end taxiing in on a narrow taxiway (who had been confused by the screwed up airport configuration); so we talked ourselves past each other on unicom. I had apparently not heard the radio call in of a small jet landing on runway 20; so I started my takeoff roll on runway 02 and only saw the aircraft who had landed and was at taxi speed during my takeoff roll when I was near rotation speed. Consequently; I thought the best option was to immediately lift off with a slight turn to the right to laterally clear the runway in any case; and that worked - I missed him vertically by 50 feet and laterally by more than 150 feet. Was that the best split-second decision? I thought so - I am a former airshow pilot. In my opinion; the airport management had made some bad decisions concerning their improvement construction (reconstructing the parallel taxiway) and the airport was dangerous considering their heavy corporate jet traffic. I had not heard the small jet on unicom - possibly due to my conversation on unicom with the southeast plane taxiing in (in the opposite direction) just prior to takeoff. The wind was fairly light and runway 20 was apparently chosen by the jet traffic to likewise avoid a back taxi since the only runway exit was at the very end of runway 20.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C182 pilot reported a conflict on takeoff from the non-tower JWN airport with a corporate jet landing opposite direction. Reporter cited operational concerns stemming from construction as a contributing factor.

Narrative: JWN airport (with a single runway) was undergoing major construction and had no parallel taxiway; plus the only exit from the runway was a single narrow taxiway at the end of runway 02 leading between some hangars to and from FBO. No operating control tower- only UNICOM. Before departure I asked in the FBO what the active runway was; and the reply was that 'people are taking off on runway 02 and landing on runway 20 to avoid a back taxi on a long runway'. Taxiing out to runway 02 for departure I encountered another low wing SE airplane near the runway end taxiing in on a narrow taxiway (who had been confused by the screwed up airport configuration); so we talked ourselves past each other on UNICOM. I had apparently not heard the radio call in of a small jet landing on runway 20; so I started my takeoff roll on runway 02 and only saw the aircraft who had landed and was at taxi speed during my takeoff roll when I was near rotation speed. Consequently; I thought the best option was to immediately lift off with a slight turn to the right to laterally clear the runway in any case; and that worked - I missed him vertically by 50 feet and laterally by more than 150 feet. Was that the best split-second decision? I thought so - I am a former airshow pilot. In my opinion; the airport management had made some bad decisions concerning their improvement construction (reconstructing the parallel taxiway) and the airport was dangerous considering their heavy corporate jet traffic. I had not heard the small jet on UNICOM - possibly due to my conversation on UNICOM with the SE plane taxiing in (in the opposite direction) just prior to takeoff. The wind was fairly light and runway 20 was apparently chosen by the jet traffic to likewise avoid a back taxi since the only runway exit was at the very end of runway 20.

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.