Narrative:

My annual was expiring the following day and I needed to get my plane to my mechanic today because tomorrow's weather was expected to be bad. I called weather brief at xa:00; just 2 hours prior to start of flight at xc:00. I was told the visibility was unrestricted and the overcast was stable and was told I should be ok for VFR for the flight. I took off with full fuel at xc:00. Sunset that day was xd:06 and I expected to land at xd:10 within the dusk period. I am not current with my IFR rating and it has been many years since I flew at night. I did not in my flight planning expect to be in the air at night. My weather brief did not indicate I would be aloft in marginal VFR or IFR. I had my garmin GPS with me and set for the destination airport. It thankfully performed flawlessly and took me right there arriving in marginal VFR at about xd:20. I recalled vaguely seeing something about clicking 5 or 7 times to bring on the light but after clicking many times could not see an airport. I saw a few other lights about but could not see an airport. When I climbed to 2500 ft I entered full IFR in a cloud. I descended but did not want to descend too much because of ridges in the area. I circled several times but no joy. I then decided to proceed due south because I recalled the visibility was better and I had passed several airports. On my way up; approach had me on their radar and tracked me until I was about 20 miles from destination at which time they lost me and terminated my following. So I left their frequency and went to the local unicom but could get no response. After several minutes I went back to approach and called several times but no reply. Eventually a cirrus on the frequency heard me calling the relaying to approach that I needed information on airports to my south and finally after rejecting a few because of no lights or problems at the airports I was directed to an army airfield. I dialed it up on my GPS and in a few minutes an air rescue helicopter called me just after he took off to come look for me and asked if I could see him. I could and he said follow me. At that time I had good visibility again and in about 5 minutes my GPS and the helicopter got me to the vicinity of the army airfield. The helicopter talked to the tower and asked if it was ok for me to land there or should he take me to a civilian field nearby. They replied that it was ok for me to land and then they called me directly and gave me permission to land either way and circle once if I would like to become familiar with the area. I replied that I would like to land now and was in perfect shape to enter a base leg. I then continued my approach and landed uneventfully and taxied as advised up to just beneath the control tower. Then came the fun. A fire truck; an ambulance; police; paramedics; and soldiers took up position around my plane. I got out and proceeded to change into my regular shoes out of my sneakers and was advised to stay by my plane. In a short while the co of the base came up and requested I follow him. I complied and in their lounge they contacted the FBO I was headed for; and they came with an instructor who flew my plane to their base 25 miles away. The co; a great guy who had spend 300 hours flying attack helicopters in iraq; was happy to see my plane gone. All's well that ends well. Reviewing my flight planning and the flight; I have to admit errors in planning and judgement. I called in a flight plan but could not file it after liftoff because the frequency given to me by the briefer did not respond. I did not expect to be up at night but recalled seeing the proper number of clicks to get the lights on. It is not in my experience that those clicks should occur on any frequency other than the unicom frequency. I should have gone to another frequency and clicked I learned later. I never expected to not be able to see the airport and have to be up longer than expected...into the night. I know now not to push daylight so late in the future in case of unexpected eventualities. For a time; I have to admit; my mouth was extremely dry and I was breathing very heavy not knowing if the worst would happen to me that night. Approach was very helpful as was the unknown cirrus driver who relayed for me.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C150 pilot planned his flight for a late evening arrival to an airport that he needed airport lighting to find. After he was unable to turn the airport's lights on he sought assistance and was guided to a military field.

Narrative: My annual was expiring the following day and I needed to get my plane to my Mechanic today because tomorrow's weather was expected to be bad. I called weather brief at XA:00; just 2 hours prior to start of flight at XC:00. I was told the visibility was unrestricted and the overcast was stable and was told I should be OK for VFR for the flight. I took off with full fuel at XC:00. Sunset that day was XD:06 and I expected to land at XD:10 within the dusk period. I am not current with my IFR rating and it has been many years since I flew at night. I did not in my flight planning expect to be in the air at night. My weather brief did not indicate I would be aloft in marginal VFR or IFR. I had my Garmin GPS with me and set for the destination airport. It thankfully performed flawlessly and took me right there arriving in marginal VFR at about XD:20. I recalled vaguely seeing something about clicking 5 or 7 times to bring on the light but after clicking many times could not see an airport. I saw a few other lights about but could not see an airport. When I climbed to 2500 FT I entered full IFR in a cloud. I descended but did not want to descend too much because of ridges in the area. I circled several times but no joy. I then decided to proceed due south because I recalled the visibility was better and I had passed several airports. On my way up; Approach had me on their radar and tracked me until I was about 20 miles from destination at which time they lost me and terminated my following. So I left their frequency and went to the local UNICOM but could get no response. After several minutes I went back to Approach and called several times but no reply. Eventually a Cirrus on the frequency heard me calling the relaying to Approach that I needed information on airports to my south and finally after rejecting a few because of no lights or problems at the airports I was directed to an Army Airfield. I dialed it up on my GPS and in a few minutes an Air Rescue helicopter called me just after he took off to come look for me and asked if I could see him. I could and he said follow me. At that time I had good visibility again and in about 5 minutes my GPS and the helicopter got me to the vicinity of the Army Airfield. The helicopter talked to the Tower and asked if it was OK for me to land there or should he take me to a civilian field nearby. They replied that it was OK for me to land and then they called me directly and gave me permission to land either way and circle once if I would like to become familiar with the area. I replied that I would like to land now and was in perfect shape to enter a base leg. I then continued my approach and landed uneventfully and taxied as advised up to just beneath the Control Tower. Then came the fun. A fire truck; an ambulance; police; paramedics; and soldiers took up position around my plane. I got out and proceeded to change into my regular shoes out of my sneakers and was advised to stay by my plane. In a short while the CO of the base came up and requested I follow him. I complied and in their lounge they contacted the FBO I was headed for; and they came with an instructor who flew my plane to their base 25 miles away. The CO; a great guy who had spend 300 hours flying attack helicopters in Iraq; was happy to see my plane gone. All's well that ends well. Reviewing my flight planning and the flight; I have to admit errors in planning and judgement. I called in a flight plan but could not file it after liftoff because the frequency given to me by the briefer did not respond. I did not expect to be up at night but recalled seeing the proper number of clicks to get the lights on. It is not in my experience that those clicks should occur on any frequency other than the UNICOM frequency. I should have gone to another frequency and clicked I learned later. I never expected to not be able to see the airport and have to be up longer than expected...into the night. I know now not to push daylight so late in the future in case of unexpected eventualities. For a time; I have to admit; my mouth was extremely dry and I was breathing very heavy not knowing if the worst would happen to me that night. Approach was very helpful as was the unknown Cirrus driver who relayed for me.

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.