Cessna Single Piston Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 10; Flight Crew Total 148; Flight Crew Type 64
Communication Breakdown; Distraction; Situational Awareness
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Ground Incursion Runway
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors
While flying VFR back to my home airport; I landed on runway 35L (perfect weather; no clouds; excellent visibility). On completing the landing; the tower informed me that I was cleared on 35R (small runway); not 35L (long and wide parallel runway); and therefore landed on the wrong runway.  Although tower may have cleared me on 35R and I may have misunderstood; I cannot categorically confirm it as I have not been provided with a recording of the calls. I accept I may have misunderstood the tower's instructions as the airport was quiet and 35L is the runway usually given (I usually requested 35L when given 35R if possible).  I was requested to call tower which I duly did within 30 minutes of landing. It was explained that the incident had been reported to the FAA and I should expect a call and potential further action. Tower explained that my actions did not cause any risk to any other aircraft as none were landing or taking off from 35L at the time of landing.Although it does not excuse my mistake by any means (providing I was indeed cleared on 35R; not 35L); my two sons were in the plane at the time of landing and one was being air sick. Although my wife was dealing with my sick son; I may have been distracted by the event and wrongly assumed I was cleared on 35L. In the eventuality that I was indeed cleared on 35R; I take full responsibility for the mistake.
We were on the return leg of a short flight back; where we had taken our two sons for lunch. Weather was VFR; Sky clear and 10sm visibility. My husband was PIC in left seat and I was right seat; dealing with our children in the back seats and occasionally doing the radios.We were given a squawk code and upon arrival at the airport we were instructed to enter right downwind for the runway (I believed runway 35L; but it is possible it was 35R - the smaller of the 2 parallel runways. I repeated the instruction and we entered the pattern. At this point our youngest son told us he was feeling unwell. I responded to him; trying to settle him and explaining that his dad needed to focus on the approach and we would be landing shortly. Tower then cleared us to land. I am not sure which one of us - my husband or me -responded to the call. We turned base; looked for traffic before turning final; and came into land. I believe Tower called us just as we were turning base to ask what type aircraft we were. The tower frequency and pattern were not particularly busy at the time.As soon as we landed Tower radioed to say we had landed on the wrong runway. I was very surprised and apologized (I did not remember having been cleared for 35R; but accepted that if they were telling me we were then they were probably correct). I believe the incident was the result of the following factors:Complacency due to the fact that [this] is our home airport. My husband is used to being cleared for the larger runway except when there is a high level of traffic in the vicinity. At our time of arrival the airport was fairly quiet. We assumed that we would be cleared for the big runway - our anticipation of that clearance meant that neither of us paid sufficient attention to the actual clearance given.The fact that each of us took radio calls whilst in the pattern may have caused some confusion in the acceptance of the clearance - there was a lack of continuity.The added distraction of our son feeling ill may have contributed to us not absorbing the runway information we were given by Tower. The timing of him needing our attention was unfortunate.My husband actually said in our post flight conversations that he almost called tower to double check the clearance. He hesitated and reassured himself that he had received clearance for 35L. We have agreed it is always worth double checking; which we will do in future.Parallel runways can cause confusion in clearances. We have discussed adding or substituting the phrase 'cleared for the big / small runway' in future. We will discuss this with other pilots and perhaps Tower staff to see if this would be in any way helpful.
The pilot flying and the non pilot flying described the circumstances that led to landing on the incorrect parallel runway at their home airport.