Light Sport Aircraft
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 101; Flight Crew Total 622; Flight Crew Type 148
Confusion; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach
Airport; Human Factors; Chart Or Publication
I was attempting to land at ZZZ; an unfamiliar airport described in the chart supplements as a short grass strip that is unattended and with no services. Approaching from the north; I misidentified a small; unrelated field as the airport environment. The field was located about .5 due north of the actual airport. I overflew the field; and noted that it was oriented the same as the listed runways; was about the same length; and appeared to have tire tracks and ruts at both ends consistent with a grass runway. The proximity of new housing subdivisions to each end of the field was peculiar; but was consistent with the description of ZZZ being close to houses; power lines; and a suburban environment. I circled overhead the field several times observing the approach; and concluded the landing would definitely require full and well-executed short field techniques. I performed a normal short field approach; which brought me within 30-40ft. of the roof of the nearest house to the field; and within 10 ft. of the fence bordering the field. A workman was attending what appeared to be a truck near the end of the field; and he acted startled and ran away in a path perpendicular to my approach. Once I began my round-out and at a height of about 10 ft.; I could see that the field was not mowed grass; but was some sort of vegetation about 1-2 ft. high. I added power and executed a normal go-around. I flew a traffic pattern at 1000ft. AGL attempting to further observe the field and orient myself to the sectional chart using my panel mounted VFR GPS and by visual landmarks. I concluded that I had miss identified the airport and landed at a nearby larger airport instead. The lack of preparation and situational awareness. When planning to arrive at such a small unfamiliar airport in a dense suburban setting; I should have consulted Google maps and other aerial views so as to be able to visually identify the airport. I'll definitely do this in the future. The sectional chart shows the airport symbol in a slightly inaccurate location; approximately .5 north of where the airport actually is. I understand the sectional is not appropriate for navigation at the sub 1-mile scale; but when I was circling the incorrect field trying to confirm the environment; my GPS showed me exactly centered on the airfield symbol. I later confirmed this using both print and digital sectionals. The actual accurate airport location is approximately at the lower edge of the unfilled magenta circle that indicates the airport on the sectional. I will not use a GPS for navigation decisions of this small granularity in the future. I'll apply this lesson elsewhere; and not use my GPS to skirt restricted or controlled airspace by sub-mile distances.
Private pilot reported misidentifying a field for a nearby private grass landing strip; which resulted in a go-around.