Narrative:

I was planning to go to plu (thun field; washington) for dinner. This field is uncontrolled. I filed a flight plan to plu; and departed from an airport to the south. I opened my flight plan after departing. I planned on flying direct. While enroute my GPS was not working properly; so I switched to navigation via a foreflight standby device. I used VOR and dead-reckoning skills to pinpoint and track my progress along the route. I planned my descents to avoid nearby bravo airspace shelves. About 12 miles south of my intended destination; I encountered heavy smoke due to a nearby fire. At the same time I accessed weather at my intended destination via ASOS. At about 8 miles from my intended destination; I started making traffic calls to on the CTAF to announce my position and intention of landing.I saw a tower light flash and I turned my plane towards the light while making position reports on CTAF. I announced my position on final and subsequently landed. After I landed; I noticed that I was not at the airport that I intended to land at; but instead; at a nearby controlled airport. I immediately contacted the control tower and followed the controller's instructions. After advising airport personnel that I intended to land at a nearby airport; I was given clearance to depart.the cause of the problem was my misidentification of the airport that I intended to land at. I discovered this problem upon landing. Contributing factors were the nighttime conditions as well as the smoke in the air. In the future I could more readily familiarize myself with foreflight on my standby electronic device; as well as refresh my VOR; dead reckoning; and nighttime airport identification skills.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: General aviation pilot reported becoming disoriented during a night flight under smoky conditions and landed at an unintended airport.

Narrative: I was planning to go to PLU (Thun Field; Washington) for dinner. This field is uncontrolled. I filed a flight plan to PLU; and departed from an airport to the south. I opened my flight plan after departing. I planned on flying direct. While enroute my GPS was not working properly; so I switched to navigation via a ForeFlight standby device. I used VOR and dead-reckoning skills to pinpoint and track my progress along the route. I planned my descents to avoid nearby Bravo airspace shelves. About 12 miles south of my intended destination; I encountered heavy smoke due to a nearby fire. At the same time I accessed weather at my intended destination via ASOS. At about 8 miles from my intended destination; I started making traffic calls to on the CTAF to announce my position and intention of landing.I saw a tower light flash and I turned my plane towards the light while making position reports on CTAF. I announced my position on final and subsequently landed. After I landed; I noticed that I was not at the airport that I intended to land at; but instead; at a nearby controlled airport. I immediately contacted the Control Tower and followed the controller's instructions. After advising airport personnel that I intended to land at a nearby airport; I was given clearance to depart.The cause of the problem was my misidentification of the airport that I intended to land at. I discovered this problem upon landing. Contributing factors were the nighttime conditions as well as the smoke in the air. In the future I could more readily familiarize myself with ForeFlight on my standby electronic device; as well as refresh my VOR; dead reckoning; and nighttime airport identification skills.

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.