Narrative:

Upon completing a full-stop landing on runway 12; we began to taxi back to the end of the runway. The wind was calm; and traffic was favoring runway 12. During our taxi; a cessna 172 did a touch-and-go on the same runway behind us with no conflicts. About 3 minutes later; we checked for traffic; made our radio call; and taxied onto the runway for takeoff. Both myself and my student looked down the runway and could not see any traffic. As we began to rotate; my student remarked about something on the runway ahead of us. As we began to climb; we could clearly see a glider and tow-plane stationed just off center on the runway about 4;000 from the end of the runway we took off from. Neither aircraft appeared to be moving or occupied. We got no response to our radio calls. We then exited the pattern and waited for the traffic to take off before returning to land around 10 minutes later.on our part; I should have paid more attention to checking for traffic on the runway; however; the position and length of the runway makes it difficult to see small aircraft on the other end of the runway. Had I not been so focused on what was going on inside the plane while my student took off; I may have noticed the aircraft sooner on the takeoff roll and aborted. That said; I believe the main contributor to this incident was the choice of the glider and tow-plane pilots to position their aircraft in the center of an active runway for an extended period of without making this clear to other traffic on or around the airport.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: GA instructor pilot and student reported observing aircraft on the opposite end of the runway during takeoff.

Narrative: Upon completing a full-stop landing on Runway 12; we began to taxi back to the end of the runway. The wind was calm; and traffic was favoring Runway 12. During our taxi; a Cessna 172 did a touch-and-go on the same runway behind us with no conflicts. About 3 minutes later; we checked for traffic; made our radio call; and taxied onto the runway for takeoff. Both myself and my student looked down the runway and could not see any traffic. As we began to rotate; my student remarked about something on the runway ahead of us. As we began to climb; we could clearly see a glider and tow-plane stationed just off center on the runway about 4;000 from the end of the runway we took off from. Neither aircraft appeared to be moving or occupied. We got no response to our radio calls. We then exited the pattern and waited for the traffic to take off before returning to land around 10 minutes later.On our part; I should have paid more attention to checking for traffic on the runway; however; the position and length of the runway makes it difficult to see small aircraft on the other end of the runway. Had I not been so focused on what was going on inside the plane while my student took off; I may have noticed the aircraft sooner on the takeoff roll and aborted. That said; I believe the main contributor to this incident was the choice of the glider and tow-plane pilots to position their aircraft in the center of an active runway for an extended period of without making this clear to other traffic on or around the airport.

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.