Narrative:

I was on a northerly heading; descending; being vectored to my destination; aao (jabara field in wichita); which was landing to the south. Approach had vectored me slightly toward the northeast for some IFR traffic departing aao. I spotted (or thought I had spotted) aao. ATC informed me of an [aircraft] departing. I looked down and saw the traffic. During my descent; the windshield had fogged up significantly; causing me to have to rub it continuously through the descent beginning at about 10;000 feet; to be able to see out. This has been an issue with the [older] models; but for some reason was especially bad this particular day. I was constantly having to wipe off the windshield; while flying the jet; keeping abreast of any traffic; etc. At any rate; I called the field (what I thought was the field). Approach cleared me for the visual; I canceled; changed to the aao CTAF frequency; announced my downwind; base and final; and landed. After landing; a voice called me on aao CTAF asking me to come up on tower freq; 126.8; informing me I had landed at beech field (bec); which is located a few miles south of aao. Never in my 42 years of flying has anything like this ever happened. I apologized profusely and the tower controller told me not to worry; that it happens all the time there because of the close proximity of the two airports. I always use electronic back up (ILS or GPS when available) for confirmation and to avoid just such a thing happening. On this particular morning I had the GPS tuned and pointing toward aao during the descent; but in all the distraction of having to continuously wipe off the windshield; complete the pre landing checks; watch for traffic; etc; I must not have updated or 'centered' the GPS on final. There was no other traffic and the tower controller cleared me for the short hop over to aao; again telling me not to worry. I'm filing this report to encourage other pilots to always use whatever means possible to identify the proper airport; runway; etc.; even on a VFR day.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Captain reported mistaking BEC for AAO during a visual approach and landing. The reporter was distracted by the need to continually wipe fog that formed on the inside of the windscreen during the approach.

Narrative: I was on a northerly heading; descending; being vectored to my destination; AAO (Jabara Field in Wichita); which was landing to the south. Approach had vectored me slightly toward the northeast for some IFR traffic departing AAO. I spotted (or thought I had spotted) AAO. ATC informed me of an [aircraft] departing. I looked down and saw the traffic. During my descent; the windshield had fogged up significantly; causing me to have to rub it continuously through the descent beginning at about 10;000 feet; to be able to see out. This has been an issue with the [older] models; but for some reason was especially bad this particular day. I was constantly having to wipe off the windshield; while flying the jet; keeping abreast of any traffic; etc. At any rate; I called the field (what I thought was the field). Approach cleared me for the visual; I canceled; changed to the AAO CTAF frequency; announced my downwind; base and final; and landed. After landing; a voice called me on AAO CTAF asking me to come up on tower freq; 126.8; informing me I had landed at Beech Field (BEC); which is located a few miles south of AAO. Never in my 42 years of flying has anything like this ever happened. I apologized profusely and the tower controller told me not to worry; that it happens all the time there because of the close proximity of the two airports. I always use electronic back up (ILS or GPS when available) for confirmation and to avoid just such a thing happening. On this particular morning I had the GPS tuned and pointing toward AAO during the descent; but in all the distraction of having to continuously wipe off the windshield; complete the pre landing checks; watch for traffic; etc; I must not have updated or 'centered' the GPS on final. There was no other traffic and the tower controller cleared me for the short hop over to AAO; again telling me not to worry. I'm filing this report to encourage other pilots to always use whatever means possible to identify the proper airport; runway; etc.; even on a VFR day.

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.