Narrative:

After landing; I taxied to the ramp where there were a few airplanes parked around that hangar. I was parked on the west side of the hangar and wanted to taxi back to the run-up area to take off on runway 11 at merritt island. This is an uncontrolled airport. Since there were numerous planes outside and around the hangar; taxiing would be tight; I looked for another route to the run-up area. To the north and to the west of where I was what looked to me to be a taxiway; which I thought would lead me to the run-up area on the north side of the airport. As I began to taxi; I noticed two buildings on my right; which appeared to have hangars attached; so I continued on what I thought would be a taxiway which would lead me to the run-up area. There were no signs at all. There were no signs saying 'do not enter;' nor were there any signs designating this to be a non-taxiing road. After I passed the buildings; I noticed that I was on the west side of the airport; but there were no run-up areas at that point and I became aware that I might be on a perimeter road and not a taxiway. However; I was too far west of the runway and the only way I thought I could get on the runway was to continue on what I thought to be a taxiway around the airport. When I reached the south side of the airport; there was no direct route to the run-up area; or the runway. Merritt island has only one runway; runway 29/11; so I continued south until I reached an intersection which would allow me access to the run-up area. Lesson to be learned: when traveling at an unfamiliar airport; find out exactly where the taxiways are and be careful not to get trapped on a perimeter road.callback conversation with reporter revealed the following info: reporter provided exact information regarding where the events took place.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot of a small single engine aircraft on the ground at COI inadvertently taxied on a perimeter road which appeared to be a taxiway. Pilot also cited lack of signage as a contributing factor.

Narrative: After landing; I taxied to the ramp where there were a few airplanes parked around that hangar. I was parked on the west side of the hangar and wanted to taxi back to the run-up area to take off on Runway 11 at Merritt Island. This is an uncontrolled airport. Since there were numerous planes outside and around the hangar; taxiing would be tight; I looked for another route to the run-up area. To the north and to the west of where I was what looked to me to be a taxiway; which I thought would lead me to the run-up area on the north side of the airport. As I began to taxi; I noticed two buildings on my right; which appeared to have hangars attached; so I continued on what I thought would be a taxiway which would lead me to the run-up area. There were no signs at all. There were no signs saying 'Do Not Enter;' nor were there any signs designating this to be a non-taxiing road. After I passed the buildings; I noticed that I was on the west side of the airport; but there were no run-up areas at that point and I became aware that I might be on a perimeter road and not a taxiway. However; I was too far west of the runway and the only way I thought I could get on the runway was to continue on what I thought to be a taxiway around the airport. When I reached the south side of the airport; there was no direct route to the run-up area; or the runway. Merritt Island has only one runway; Runway 29/11; so I continued south until I reached an intersection which would allow me access to the run-up area. Lesson to be learned: When traveling at an unfamiliar airport; find out exactly where the taxiways are and be careful not to get trapped on a perimeter road.Callback conversation with reporter revealed the following info: Reporter provided exact information regarding where the events took place.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.