Narrative:

I called flight service for an updated briefing prior to flying. I flew in IMC entering the overcast at 1;700 ft. I stayed in overcast until on top at 3;000 ft. Miami ATC told me to do a visual approach into avo. I told them I was in heavy IMC and had to do the GPS runway 5 approach into avo. They said fine; shoot the approach; radar service is terminated and don't forget to call and cancel your flight plan. They then signed off without giving me any missed approach instructions. I then announced my intentions on the avo CTAF and heard no responses to my declaring of my intentions on flying the approach; my report at each fix; and on final approach. When I broke out in haze at 800 ft my wife pointed out a runway maybe four to five miles ahead on my nose at 049 degrees heading; the same as my approach to GPS runway 5 and I flew to that airport. When I landed a civilian fire truck came out to greet me. I told him that I was looking for avo and was flying a GPS approach and broke out at 800 ft and thought it was that airport. He told me this happens quite often. I then took off for avo and landed there without incident. I was so concerned about this that I called my flight instructor this morning and told him what happened. He had given me a complete instrument proficiency review the previous month. We are going to get together and review the entire flight and try to re-create what happened and practice the same approach into avo. He feels this will prevent this from happening again.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An inexperienced instrument rated private pilot on an IFR flight landed at the wrong airport following a GPS approach to his destination.

Narrative: I called Flight Service for an updated briefing prior to flying. I flew in IMC entering the overcast at 1;700 FT. I stayed in overcast until on top at 3;000 FT. Miami ATC told me to do a visual approach into AVO. I told them I was in heavy IMC and had to do the GPS Runway 5 approach into AVO. They said fine; shoot the approach; radar service is terminated and don't forget to call and cancel your flight plan. They then signed off without giving me any missed approach instructions. I then announced my intentions on the AVO CTAF and heard no responses to my declaring of my intentions on flying the approach; my report at each fix; and on final approach. When I broke out in haze at 800 FT my wife pointed out a runway maybe four to five miles ahead on my nose at 049 degrees heading; the same as my approach to GPS Runway 5 and I flew to that airport. When I landed a civilian fire truck came out to greet me. I told him that I was looking for AVO and was flying a GPS approach and broke out at 800 FT and thought it was that airport. He told me this happens quite often. I then took off for AVO and landed there without incident. I was so concerned about this that I called my flight instructor this morning and told him what happened. He had given me a complete instrument proficiency review the previous month. We are going to get together and review the entire flight and try to re-create what happened and practice the same approach into AVO. He feels this will prevent this from happening again.

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.