Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Total 30000
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Workload; Situational Awareness; Human-Machine Interface; Distraction
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Landing Without Clearance; Ground Incursion Runway
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Human Factors
I was the SIC [on a flight] which landed at a privately owned airstrip a few miles short of our intended destination; HBV.The flight to HBV; Hebbronville; TX was logged at 2:19 hours. The flight was flown at an altitude of 39;000 ft under visual conditions. My partner and I while at altitude briefed the field conditions; WX; and decided upon a visual approach backed up with the RNAV GPS 13 approach into HBV. We were both not familiar with this field and stated this would be our best course of action. The flight was uneventful until approximately 80 nm northwest of the intended field of HBV. The chain of events into this incident started at this point. Our approach planning was briefed at this point. Although [the Captain] and I were not familiar with this field we felt confident the RNAV GPS 13 would best back up the visual. LRD was the IAF for the approach. I briefed we would fly over and it and the FMS would guide us the rest of the way. Simple.Things now start to change. Houston Center now starts to vector us away from Laredo. OK; we are now going to be east of our intended course. Additionally Center is providing us with a few fairly aggressive altitude crossing restrictions that started to demand our full attention. As flying pilot my full attention becomes fully devoted to complying with the ATC requests. Nothing unusual or unsafe but just requiring our total crew focus. At one point [the Captain] remarked this is crossing a bit tight. I stated I didn't want to descend any greater with [passengers] on board so we stated this to Center. No problem Center remarked but another vector to the East was given. I believe our altitude to be 3;000 feet at this point. My concentration as flying pilot was a little more inside of the airplane than I would have preferred. My situational awareness told me we were slightly east of course and now fairly close in. Houston Center asked if we would like to proceed with the GPS approach and we stated yes. As I selected the final approach fix altitude of 2;000 feet; VNAV and armed the approach mode I had an inherent worry about the FMS. It's been my experience with this box that it can sometime struggle with close in vectoring and provide erroneous inputs. Sometimes the FMS simply needs time to properly sequence and my concern was perhaps we could be a little too close.  A pilot preconceived notion and a level of distrust in my avionics is being developed right here on my part; not good.  My FMS is telling [me] to fly right to intercept yet so is my awareness. So all is well; besides were are VMC. As I scan back to my flight director I am not however 100% confident with my flight director. Where are all the approach cues I wanted to see? Visual 10 miles of visibility; I believe my box is struggling; just fly the jet were my thoughts.  As fate would have a landing strip appears in the distance right on the nose. [The Captain] and I briefed what the field would look like and its orientation. Everything before us looked good.  Our decision to call the field visually and cancel with ATC was made. At this point I had to discredit my flight director inputs as I believed them to be somewhat misleading. I transitioned fully to a VFR landing and concentrated on my flying speeds and stopping the aircraft on a 5;000 feet strip.In the flare my little voice which is never wrong started talking to me. Absent was the PAPI I briefed and other visual runway cues we had talked about. The landing was smooth and uneventful. I knew at this time of our flight crew error.Landings into small private West Texas airports pose unique threats to arriving pilots; especially when flown in visual conditions. We all know and are trained to step up our game when flying into these unfamiliar strips that are now being constructed and popping up seemingly all over Southwest Texas. Some are certified top notch airports offering approach guidance. Others are not. It's been my experience with these fields [thatthey frequently] have NAVAIDs NOTAMed out of service; or some can be highly questionable when using. On this day all these factors played into my reasoning and pilot decision making. Perhaps this is why I continued a botched approach into a rancher's field. Unbelievable. Long time piloting experience is largely beneficial. However we must all fight pilot preconceived notions that can unfortunately lead us astray; much like this one did for me. With over 30;000 hours of combined military and civilian flight crew and piloting experience I have never been involved in any such incident. On this day that record came to an end. It stings a little.
Corporate Jet First Officer reported landing at the wrong airport after canceling IFR with the field in sight.