Narrative:

I was on a night VFR flight [to] kxll with good visibility; using ipad for navigation. Tuned into queen city AWOS reporting calm winds. Tuned to CTAF 122.7; made a position report. With no other traffic reported on the frequency; I set up for a left base entry to runway 33. While thinking I was approaching queen city; I thought I had the airport in sight and closed the ipad. (Note: on this heading; abe is located 5NM; almost directly behind kxll. The runway layout is similar at both airports). Having landed here previously twice at night with the runway lights on; I had the invalid expectation of the lights being on. I did not notice the pilot controlled lighting symbol on the chart. With the lights off at kxll; I [overflew] the airport and continued to what I did not realize was abe.landing on what I thought was runway 33; I noticed the numbers '31' crossing the threshold and figured something was not right and started looking for the tower frequency at abe. Rolling out on the runway; I heard a controller come up on 122.7 and advise me to switch to the tower frequency 120.5. The controller was accommodating and had already figured that my intention was to land at queen city. He offered instructions to taxi to runway 6 for departure and asked for north number and name; and he gave me a telephone number to call after landing. The flight to queen city ended uneventfully and the phone call yielded a very friendly supervisor who took down my information.contributing factors in the error were my expectations of the runway being lit based on previous landings here; the fact that abe lies in a direct line from kxll when approaching from the south; and perhaps my choice of doing a left base entry on 33 which simultaneously lined me up on a left base to runway 31 at abe.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A general aviation pilot became confused during a night approach and landed at the wrong airport; without a clearance to land from ATC. The airport of intended landing was non-towered.

Narrative: I was on a night VFR flight [to] KXLL with good visibility; using iPad for navigation. Tuned into Queen City AWOS reporting calm winds. Tuned to CTAF 122.7; made a position report. With no other traffic reported on the frequency; I set up for a left base entry to Runway 33. While thinking I was approaching Queen City; I thought I had the airport in sight and closed the iPad. (Note: on this heading; ABE is located 5NM; almost directly behind KXLL. The runway layout is similar at both airports). Having landed here previously twice at night with the runway lights on; I had the invalid expectation of the lights being on. I did not notice the PCL symbol on the chart. With the lights off at KXLL; I [overflew] the airport and continued to what I did not realize was ABE.Landing on what I thought was Runway 33; I noticed the numbers '31' crossing the threshold and figured something was not right and started looking for the tower frequency at ABE. Rolling out on the runway; I heard a controller come up on 122.7 and advise me to switch to the tower frequency 120.5. The controller was accommodating and had already figured that my intention was to land at Queen City. He offered instructions to taxi to Runway 6 for departure and asked for N number and name; and he gave me a telephone number to call after landing. The flight to Queen City ended uneventfully and the phone call yielded a very friendly supervisor who took down my information.Contributing factors in the error were my expectations of the runway being lit based on previous landings here; the fact that ABE lies in a direct line from KXLL when approaching from the south; and perhaps my choice of doing a left base entry on 33 which simultaneously lined me up on a left base to Runway 31 at ABE.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.