Small Aircraft
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Engineer; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 120; Flight Crew Total 21000; Flight Crew Type 1500
Confusion; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown; Ground Excursion Runway
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Human Factors; Airport
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.
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.