Narrative:

We arrived at an unfamiliar; uncontrolled airport with moderate traffic equipped with AWOS-a unicom. While taxiing to parking the passengers in rear seat were questioning my wife about the operation. When we were parked with the engine still running and the AWOS-a blaring; unbeknownst to me she turned off the volume on the unicom so she could hear their questions. We shut down and completed the parking checklist.the next day there was no traffic at the airport and I had received a thorough preflight briefing with cavu weather. Since I generally never touch the com volume controls; I inadvertently taxied out thinking that the com volume was at its normal setting. The radio silence was to be expected because of the lack of other traffic at the airport. I made all of the normal transmissions on the unicom before takeoff and the transmitter side tone was normal; so it sounded normal to us even though the receiver volume was off.when we were ready for takeoff; I made the normal timely transmission that we were about to line up on the runway for takeoff. I checked for other traffic before taxiing onto the runway and then finished the final pre-takeoff items and taxied into position. My transmission was early enough to warn anyone else that we were about to enter the runway. As we lined up for takeoff; we saw a light twin coming right at us taking off down-wind from the other end of the runway. He rotated and went right over us at no more than 100 feet separation.my wife is not a pilot; but we have years of flying together side-by-side in small airplanes. She has learned to be very helpful with communications and other cockpit duties. She doesn't normally touch the panel; but she is very familiar with what goes on during the flight. We have discussed the importance of announcing an action before touching any control or switch.I have revised my procedure when doing the 'pfd; FMS; radios; transponder; autopilot' item on the checklist to include a physical confirmation of the com volume levels.considering the pilots of both airplanes: it is important to remember that at uncontrolled airports it is very common that there will be pilots operating without any radio communications. It's easy to become complacent with hours of uneventful operations; but it is essential that pilots keep a watchful eye not only on aircraft in the traffic pattern; but also on ground movements even at distant locations on the airport especially when entering or crossing a runway.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: GA pilot reported he taxied into position at the non-towered airport M01; not aware that his comm radio volume was turned down. Another aircraft was on the takeoff roll opposite direction; and overflew him with about 100 feet of separation.

Narrative: We arrived at an unfamiliar; uncontrolled airport with moderate traffic equipped with AWOS-A Unicom. While taxiing to parking the passengers in rear seat were questioning my wife about the operation. When we were parked with the engine still running and the AWOS-A blaring; unbeknownst to me she turned off the volume on the Unicom so she could hear their questions. We shut down and completed the parking checklist.The next day there was no traffic at the airport and I had received a thorough preflight briefing with CAVU weather. Since I generally never touch the com volume controls; I inadvertently taxied out thinking that the com volume was at its normal setting. The radio silence was to be expected because of the lack of other traffic at the airport. I made all of the normal transmissions on the Unicom before takeoff and the transmitter side tone was normal; so it sounded normal to us even though the receiver volume was off.When we were ready for takeoff; I made the normal timely transmission that we were about to line up on the runway for takeoff. I checked for other traffic before taxiing onto the runway and then finished the final pre-takeoff items and taxied into position. My transmission was early enough to warn anyone else that we were about to enter the runway. As we lined up for takeoff; we saw a light twin coming right at us taking off down-wind from the other end of the runway. He rotated and went right over us at no more than 100 feet separation.My wife is not a pilot; but we have years of flying together side-by-side in small airplanes. She has learned to be very helpful with communications and other cockpit duties. She doesn't normally touch the panel; but she is very familiar with what goes on during the flight. We have discussed the importance of announcing an action before touching any control or switch.I have revised my procedure when doing the 'PFD; FMS; radios; transponder; autopilot' item on the checklist to include a physical confirmation of the com volume levels.Considering the pilots of both airplanes: it is important to remember that at uncontrolled airports it is very common that there will be pilots operating without any radio communications. It's easy to become complacent with hours of uneventful operations; but it is essential that pilots keep a watchful eye not only on aircraft in the traffic pattern; but also on ground movements even at distant locations on the airport especially when entering or crossing a runway.

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.