A distracted small aircraft pilot preparing for takeoff at sua airport intended to utilize the full ...

Attributes
ACN	1283973
Time
Date	201507
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	SUA.Airport
State Reference	FL
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Taxi
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Engineer Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 120 Flight Crew Total 21000 Flight Crew Type 1500
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown Ground Excursion Runway

Narrative:

I was taxiing out for takeoff on rwy 12 early in the morning before the tower was open and I believe I was the only aircraft moving on the field. I noticed a few noise abatement signs during the taxi so I made a mental note to use full runway length. When I taxied on to the rwy from the taxiway I noticed I was leaving runway behind me so I decided to turn around and capture all of the runway surface. As I was doing this I was finishing my before takeoff checklist and taxing very slow. About 45 degrees into my turn I inadvertently made contact with a portion of the emas blocks at the end of the runway.the plane was easily removed from the emas and no damage occurred to the plane. This could have been prevented if I had waited to finish my checklist until I was completely done with the turn.I have a question; why is this emas painted the same color as cement and looks like cement? Why is it not painted some bright color like yellow; orange or red? Camouflaging it to look like cement seems counterproductive to me.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A distracted small aircraft pilot preparing for takeoff at SUA airport intended to utilize the full runway length and taxied beyond the runway end because he did not clearly see end markings. He made his 180° turn in the adjacent EMAS which appeared as a runway overrun.

Narrative: I was taxiing out for takeoff on rwy 12 early in the morning before the tower was open and I believe I was the only aircraft moving on the field. I noticed a few noise abatement signs during the taxi so I made a mental note to use full runway length. When I taxied on to the rwy from the taxiway I noticed I was leaving runway behind me so I decided to turn around and capture all of the runway surface. As I was doing this I was finishing my before takeoff checklist and taxing very slow. About 45 degrees into my turn I inadvertently made contact with a portion of the EMAS blocks at the end of the runway.The plane was easily removed from the EMAS and no damage occurred to the plane. This could have been prevented if I had waited to finish my checklist until I was completely done with the turn.I have a question; why is this EMAS painted the same color as cement and looks like cement? Why is it not painted some bright color like yellow; orange or red? Camouflaging it to look like cement seems counterproductive to me.

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.

A distracted small aircraft pilot preparing for takeoff at sua airport intended to utilize the full runway length and taxied beyond the runway end because he did not clearly see end markings. He made his 180° turn in the adjacent emas which appeared as a runway overrun.