Small Aircraft
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 230; Flight Crew Total 1490; Flight Crew Type 700
Troubleshooting; Situational Awareness; Confusion; Distraction
Ground Event / Encounter Object
General None Reported / Taken
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors; Airport
When I arrived at DUY there was another aircraft parked in the ramp area and it began to taxi out before I vacated the runway. The previous aircraft had offloaded cargo in the center of the ramp but I failed to see it due to the ramp being unlighted and the difficulty of seeing over the engine cowling. The aircraft's taxi light is also located in one wing and doesn't illuminate objects on the other side of the aircraft very well.While taxiing onto the ramp; the propeller contacted a cardboard box from the previous aircraft's cargo. There was no damage to anything outside of the cardboard box and there were no injuries involved.The ramp area at Kongiganak is very constricted and requires a lot of effort to operate safely in the best of circumstances. I feel that this episode might not have happened had the previous aircraft unloaded its cargo in a less hazardous location. At DUY the runway is lighted but the ramp is unlighted. If the ramp area had better lighting; then this unfortunate episode might have been avoided.
Pilot reported hitting cargo during taxi on an unlighted ramp at DUY airport.