A pilot; and his rated passenger; reported a near miss with another aircraft in a CTAF landing patte...

Narrative:

At the end of a personal flight to two nearby airports for landing we returned to the airport where the plane is based. We made standard position reports to the CTAF from approximately 5nm to the south west of the airport when we received an early frequency change approval from the class D tower at ZZZ. We made an additional position report at 2 miles to the southwest of the field.the position report included direction; and distance to the airport; and information that we were on a 45 degree entry to the right downwind for runway 10. Winds favored runway 10; and other pilots on CTAF stated they were using 10.when we made our call at 3 miles out from the south west; a new pilot announced position on CTAF of 3 miles out; to the west. Myself and my passenger (CFI asel; but riding as passenger not instructor) began looking for the potentially conflicting traffic to the left side of our plane based on the position report.we made a third position report at 1/2-1 nm from the field that we were turning right downwind for runway 10. At this time we saw an additional plane in the pattern on downwind; we had heard no radio communications from this plane. The plane was approximately 50 feet higher altitude than our plane; and approximately 200 feet away. I took evasive action turning 45 degrees to the left and dropping an additional 100 feet of altitude. I decided to turn to the left as the plane was to our right side; and I opted to turn away from them rather than towards them. I quickly re-acquired sight of this plane after evasive action and found them 500 feet behind me; and 500 feet further from the runway from me; and 100-150 feet above me both on downwind. We announced our intentions to depart the pattern straight north; and lost sight of the other plane as we continued north; it was either too far behind us; or turned. I flew straight and level to the north of the field as I allowed the adrenaline to settle from the near collision; and then returned to the airport to land without incident. During this time; myself and my passenger heard very faint calls on the radio that may or may not have been from the other plane involved. We confirmed that we could hear other planes in the pattern; and had verified our transmit capabilities with the ZZZ tower just minutes prior.after landing; we saw the conflicting traffic had already landed; and was taxiing back for a departure. We tried calling the plane on CTAF; and got no response. We decided to inform the workers at the FBO of a possible radio issue on the plane; so they could inform the pilot on his return; or address the issue if it was a rental provided by the FBO. My passenger (CFI asel) went to the FBO to relay this info as I tied down the plane. In the FBO; he found another CFI who said he had been in that plane for the near collision; and that the radio volume was turned to 'zero' and that was the issue. It seemed that they could neither transmit nor receive communications on their radio at the time.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A pilot; and his rated passenger; reported a near miss with another aircraft in a CTAF landing pattern after an instructor in the other aircraft later acknowledged his aircraft radio volume was near OFF.

Narrative: At the end of a personal flight to two nearby airports for landing we returned to the airport where the plane is based. We made standard position reports to the CTAF from approximately 5nm to the south west of the airport when we received an early frequency change approval from the Class D tower at ZZZ. We made an additional position report at 2 miles to the southwest of the field.The position report included direction; and distance to the airport; and information that we were on a 45 degree entry to the right downwind for runway 10. Winds favored runway 10; and other pilots on CTAF stated they were using 10.When we made our call at 3 miles out from the south west; a new pilot announced position on CTAF of 3 miles out; to the west. Myself and my passenger (CFI ASEL; but riding as passenger not instructor) began looking for the potentially conflicting traffic to the left side of our plane based on the position report.We made a third position report at 1/2-1 nm from the field that we were turning right downwind for runway 10. At this time we saw an additional plane in the pattern on downwind; we had heard no radio communications from this plane. The plane was approximately 50 feet higher altitude than our plane; and approximately 200 feet away. I took evasive action turning 45 degrees to the left and dropping an additional 100 feet of altitude. I decided to turn to the left as the plane was to our right side; and I opted to turn away from them rather than towards them. I quickly re-acquired sight of this plane after evasive action and found them 500 feet behind me; and 500 feet further from the runway from me; and 100-150 feet above me both on downwind. We announced our intentions to depart the pattern straight north; and lost sight of the other plane as we continued north; it was either too far behind us; or turned. I flew straight and level to the north of the field as I allowed the adrenaline to settle from the near collision; and then returned to the airport to land without incident. During this time; myself and my passenger heard very faint calls on the radio that may or may not have been from the other plane involved. We confirmed that we could hear other planes in the pattern; and had verified our transmit capabilities with the ZZZ tower just minutes prior.After landing; we saw the conflicting traffic had already landed; and was taxiing back for a departure. We tried calling the plane on CTAF; and got no response. We decided to inform the workers at the FBO of a possible radio issue on the plane; so they could inform the pilot on his return; or address the issue if it was a rental provided by the FBO. My passenger (CFI ASEL) went to the FBO to relay this info as I tied down the plane. In the FBO; he found another CFI who said he had been in that plane for the near collision; and that the radio volume was turned to 'zero' and that was the issue. It seemed that they could neither transmit nor receive communications on their radio at the time.

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	1321916
Time
Date	201601
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Sundowner 23
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Flight Phase	Landing
Component
Aircraft Component	Air/Ground Communication
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 8 Flight Crew Total 134
Person 2
Function	Other / Unknown
Qualification	Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Commercial
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 2.5 Flight Crew Total 391
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown
Miss Distance	Horizontal 200 Vertical 50

A pilot; and his rated passenger; reported a near miss with another aircraft in a CTAF landing pattern after an instructor in the other aircraft later acknowledged his aircraft radio volume was near off.