King Air C90 E90
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100; Flight Crew Total 1700; Flight Crew Type 250
Confusion; Situational Awareness
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Landing Without Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Incursion Runway
General None Reported / Taken
Airport; Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors; Weather
As I descended to 2000 ft on an IFR flight plan on a easterly heading Approach informed me airport was at my 10-11 o'clock. The sun was setting behind me and there was some haze evident on trying to spot the field. I had the ILS 5 Approach loaded into my GPS; a ritual that I always do when flying into an unfamiliar airport. The sun suddenly highlighted a portion of the runway and I announced field in sight and cancelled my IFR flight plan to squawk VFR and change to advisory from [Approach]. As I turned inbound on a left base; descended to 500 ft and announced my position and intentions; I realized that the intended runway and airport environment was not typical of my preflight planning for [my destination]; and this was an AIR FORCE BASE; 5nm east of [my destination]. Rather than doing a low approach; I elected to land and admit my mistake. I believe my lack of situational awareness and disorientation was aided by the proximity of the 2 airfields; the similar orientation of their runways (4 and 5); and the dusky haze and light conditions at the time that led to my mistaking the intended airfield. In retrospect; I violated my cardinal rule of loading the approach path into an unfamiliar airport and flying it. Instead I relied on my visual cues at the time which were obviously inaccurate. This was an embarrassing and humbling mistake that I will never make again. I could have stayed with approach and flown the ILS; flown midfield over the airport to ensure correct runway environment; and certainly will consider this when flying to unfamiliar airports in the future. Since this incident; I have intentionally flown with an instructor in the simulator and real time; into airports with bases and other fields in close proximity to one another to prevent this recurrence.
A solo King Air pilot; IFR to an unfamiliar airport; advised it in sight and canceled IFR.  On short final he realized the field didn't look right but continued to land at an Air Force Base with similar runway alignment to that of his destination; located some five miles west of the AFB.