A pilot reported that after a night landing at dwh he taxied on the east side of the airport with no...

Narrative:

I was unfamiliar with [dwh] as I had only landed on the field once before and taxied during the day time to the local FBO adjacent to the runway. On this particular day I arrived at night to visit a hangar on the east end of the field which I had never visited before so I was unfamiliar with the surrounding hazards at this hangar's location. After arriving I noticed the lighting on the airport was minimal and I proceeded to taxi with all available lights on my aircraft to help mitigate the effects of the darkness. I taxied toward my final destination on the field and managed to successfully avoid the unlit sea lane and other unmarked hazards. As I went to make my final turn onto eagle lane where the hangar was located I noticed that there were vehicles impeding the taxiway area and was unable to stay on the yellow center line of the taxiway. I looked off the right side of my aircraft and did not see anything that looked like an obstacle and neither did my passenger. I was unaware that there was grass between my present location and the ramp adjacent to me. There is no lighting on the taxiways or ramp area on the east end of the field and no caution markings for pilots who are unfamiliar with the area to differentiate between black asphalt and grassy areas which look black and blend in with the taxiway due to inadequate lighting. As a result of my forced deviation from the taxiway centerline due to vehicles and equipment impeding the taxi area I inadvertently and unknowingly went into the grass. In order to improve the safety and prevent the same situation from recurring in the future there needs to be better communication and security between airport operations and tenants to remove obstructions from ramp and taxiway areas. There also needs to be a significant improvement in ramp lighting and taxiway edge lighting to advise all pilots of the hazards.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A pilot reported that after a night landing at DWH he taxied on the east side of the airport with no taxiway lighting and while avoiding vehicles parked on a taxiway the aircraft departed the taxiway and became stuck in mud.

Narrative: I was unfamiliar with [DWH] as I had only landed on the field once before and taxied during the day time to the local FBO adjacent to the runway. On this particular day I arrived at night to visit a hangar on the east end of the field which I had never visited before so I was unfamiliar with the surrounding hazards at this hangar's location. After arriving I noticed the lighting on the airport was minimal and I proceeded to taxi with all available lights on my aircraft to help mitigate the effects of the darkness. I taxied toward my final destination on the field and managed to successfully avoid the unlit sea lane and other unmarked hazards. As I went to make my final turn onto Eagle Lane where the hangar was located I noticed that there were vehicles impeding the taxiway area and was unable to stay on the yellow center line of the taxiway. I looked off the right side of my aircraft and did not see anything that looked like an obstacle and neither did my passenger. I was unaware that there was grass between my present location and the ramp adjacent to me. There is no lighting on the taxiways or ramp area on the east end of the field and no caution markings for pilots who are unfamiliar with the area to differentiate between black asphalt and grassy areas which look black and blend in with the taxiway due to inadequate lighting. As a result of my forced deviation from the taxiway centerline due to vehicles and equipment impeding the taxi area I inadvertently and unknowingly went into the grass. In order to improve the safety and prevent the same situation from recurring in the future there needs to be better communication and security between airport operations and tenants to remove obstructions from ramp and taxiway areas. There also needs to be a significant improvement in ramp lighting and taxiway edge lighting to advise all pilots of the hazards.

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.

Attributes
ACN	927705
Time
Date	201101
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	DWH.Airport
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Taxi
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Ground Conflict Less Severe Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown Ground Excursion Taxiway

A pilot reported that after a night landing at dwh he taxied on the east side of the airport with no taxiway lighting and while avoiding vehicles parked on a taxiway the aircraft departed the taxiway and became stuck in mud.