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GA pilot reported departing from non-towered west houston airport while unannounced construction workers were on the runway.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1537954 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201804 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | IWS.Airport |
| State Reference | TX |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Cessna Single Piston Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Takeoff |
| Flight Plan | VFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Single Pilot |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Private |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60 Flight Crew Total 250 Flight Crew Type 25 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Conflict Ground Conflict Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown |
| Miss Distance | Horizontal 400 Vertical 200 |
Narrative:
We were on CTAF frequency for 10 minutes and taxied to the runway departing on runway 33. Two aircraft landed just prior to our departure. We changed frequency to listen to ATIS from sugar land; then flipped back to the CTAF to announce our departure on the active runway. We noticed another aircraft turning base. We taxied to depart and ran the engine up. As we accelerated to rotation speed we saw there was activity at the end of the runway. As we reached rotation speed we discovered that the activity was actively on the runway. There were no radio warnings; visual; or other warnings about said activity. Due to mirage off the runway it was a complete surprise there was any activity 3/4 down the runway. We know the workers were on frequency because one of them made a comment that we almost gave him a haircut. They created a very dangerous situation which almost resulted in an accident due to their failure of not properly closing and/or marking the runway as well as making their presence known on frequency to departing traffic. Before departure we got a weather brief. There were no notams as to any runway closures.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: GA pilot reported departing from non-towered West Houston Airport while unannounced construction workers were on the runway.
Narrative: We were on CTAF frequency for 10 minutes and taxied to the runway departing on Runway 33. Two aircraft landed just prior to our departure. We changed frequency to listen to ATIS from Sugar Land; then flipped back to the CTAF to announce our departure on the active runway. We noticed another aircraft turning base. We taxied to depart and ran the engine up. As we accelerated to rotation speed we saw there was activity at the end of the runway. As we reached rotation speed we discovered that the activity was actively on the runway. There were no radio warnings; visual; or other warnings about said activity. Due to mirage off the runway it was a complete surprise there was any activity 3/4 down the runway. We know the workers were on frequency because one of them made a comment that we almost gave him a haircut. They created a very dangerous situation which almost resulted in an accident due to their failure of not properly closing and/or marking the runway as well as making their presence known on frequency to departing traffic. Before departure we got a weather brief. There were no NOTAMs as to any runway closures.
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.