Narrative:

I recently upgraded to a twin-engine aircraft with newly installed aspen glass panel avionics and an autopilot I am not completely familiar with. I decided to fly VFR to an area that I have flown almost exclusively IFR in my past aircraft because I was still becoming acquainted with the new equipment and didn't feel comfortable flying on instruments. The route of flight usually requires a deviation around a restricted area over a military base that is less than 4 miles from the civilian airport destination. Both airport runways lie directly in line with each other and look very similar to one another. I was unexpectedly given vectors across the restricted area and told to 'fly a straight in approach to runway 17.' I located what I believed to be the runway in question and began a descent to the runway. Approximately 3 miles from the runway I was passed to the civilian tower frequency and was cleared to land runway 17. Upon touching down on the runway I was informed I had landed at the wrong airport. Clearly I had the cockpit resources (GPS; etc.) to properly identify the correct airport. However; the unexpected vectors through a small corridor that was surrounded by live fire artillery exercises interfered with my thought processes and somehow destroyed my situational awareness. Looking back; it was probably ill advised to set out on a cross country trip without becoming 100% comfortable with the airplane and its new avionics. Trying to stay ahead of the airplane and fly through an unfamiliar area proved to be too much at the time. The disappointing factor in the whole process was that I was in radar contact and talking to the the military base approach control the entire time until right before landing. It would seem that the approach controller would have noticed the distance from his runway and altitude and provided warning of the proximity. At any rate; this infraction was clearly my fault and has been an embarrassing and humbling experience. It is definitely a lesson learned and a mistake I will likely never repeat.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot reports landing inadvertently at a military field 4 NM north of his airport of intended landing due to unfamiliarity with glass panel avionics in his new aircraft.

Narrative: I recently upgraded to a twin-engine aircraft with newly installed Aspen glass panel avionics and an autopilot I am not completely familiar with. I decided to fly VFR to an area that I have flown almost exclusively IFR in my past aircraft because I was still becoming acquainted with the new equipment and didn't feel comfortable flying on instruments. The route of flight usually requires a deviation around a restricted area over a military base that is less than 4 miles from the civilian airport destination. Both airport runways lie directly in line with each other and look very similar to one another. I was unexpectedly given vectors across the restricted area and told to 'fly a straight in approach to Runway 17.' I located what I believed to be the runway in question and began a descent to the runway. Approximately 3 miles from the runway I was passed to the civilian tower frequency and was cleared to land Runway 17. Upon touching down on the runway I was informed I had landed at the wrong airport. Clearly I had the cockpit resources (GPS; etc.) to properly identify the correct airport. However; the unexpected vectors through a small corridor that was surrounded by live fire artillery exercises interfered with my thought processes and somehow destroyed my situational awareness. Looking back; it was probably ill advised to set out on a cross country trip without becoming 100% comfortable with the airplane and its new avionics. Trying to stay ahead of the airplane and fly through an unfamiliar area proved to be too much at the time. The disappointing factor in the whole process was that I was in radar contact and talking to the the military base approach control the entire time until right before landing. It would seem that the approach controller would have noticed the distance from his runway and altitude and provided warning of the proximity. At any rate; this infraction was clearly my fault and has been an embarrassing and humbling experience. It is definitely a lesson learned and a mistake I will likely never repeat.

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.