Narrative:

I planned a cross-country flight to P14. I checked the notams for all airports at about XA00 UTC. At XD10 UTC; I took off with my one passenger. We picked up some fuses and a landing light switch enroute to try to fix my aircraft's landing light since a significant portion of our flight was going to be at night. We installed the switch and replaced the blown fuse. When we tested the landing light after the repair; we blew the new fuse. We decided to continue since the weather was reported to be quite clear the whole way; our destinations were well lit; and I had done 3 take-offs and landings in the past week at night with no landing light quite comfortably.we departed at XE04 UTC for P14. The weather remained clear and calm the entire flight. When we got to the vicinity of P14; we noticed the airport beacon was functioning normally and we clicked on the runway lights using the CTAF. After checking AWOS; I elected to land on runway 21 so I entered a left; rectangular pattern for runway 21. At about 5 feet above the numbers on very short final; I saw the numbers '21' but they looked odd - they had what appeared to be white rectangles scattered about. Initially; I thought perhaps they were reflectors on the numbers. I put in a touch of power and pulled the nose up slightly to land past the numbers since it looked strange. My passenger commented that they looked like milk jugs. I commenced an uneventful full-stop landing and pulled up to the fuel pumps. We noted that one of the taxiways had barriers. We decided there were enough odd things that happened during that flight that we should call it a day and continue our flight in the morning (landing light out; panel clock stopped midflight; runway numbers looked odd; barriers on taxiway). We pulled the plane to parking and tied it down. A pick-up pulled up. The driver mentioned the runway was closed and it was NOTAM'd. I checked again and saw two notams closing both runways were posted at XE03 UTC on that day; one minute before I started the engine for that flight. The driver also said that the ground vehicles that would be performing work (the reason the runways were closed) would have radios and that it should be no problem to coordinate with them to depart in the morning.the next morning; I called the phone number in the notams to request permission to depart. The individual who answered was with the city of holbrook and just said the airport was closed. I mentioned the NOTAM said I could call this number for permission to depart. He said he was unaware of this and gave me another city number to call. Since he didn't seem to understand the NOTAM system and since the number he gave me was not affiliated with the airport; I made the decision that contacting the construction vehicles at the airport (I was standing on the ramp by my plane) and coordinating with them would be safe and aligned with the intent of the NOTAM. I did not call the number he provided. Before starting the engine on my aircraft; I spoke to them by handheld radio on CTAF. They said to call them up when I was ready for take-off and they'd move. I started the plane; did my run-up; called them and they said they were clear of the runway which I was able to visually confirm before take-off roll. When I pulled onto the runway; I saw what was on the numbers. They were what looked like white; 20 pound sand bags standing upright on end. There were about two dozen arranged in an X. That would have significantly damaged my aircraft's landing gear had I landed 20 feet sooner. I used a taxiway that got me onto the runway in front of the sandbags and took-off uneventfully (there was still almost 6000 usable feet of runway). Having a minimum time between posting a NOTAM about an airport closure and actually closing an airport of at least 24-hrs would have prevented this. Disabling the airport beacon and/or runway lights for an unusable airport would have also been a clear signal not to land - having all the lights working at the closed airport was deceptive. The landing light may have shown me the sandbags in time to do a go-around but maybe not.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: General Aviation Pilot reported landing at night with an inoperative landing light to learn that the airport is closed. The NOTAM closing the airport had been issued just before engine start for the flight; although an intermediate stop had occurred to attempt to repair the landing light.

Narrative: I planned a cross-country flight to P14. I checked the NOTAMs for all airports at about XA00 UTC. At XD10 UTC; I took off with my one passenger. We picked up some fuses and a landing light switch enroute to try to fix my aircraft's landing light since a significant portion of our flight was going to be at night. We installed the switch and replaced the blown fuse. When we tested the landing light after the repair; we blew the new fuse. We decided to continue since the weather was reported to be quite clear the whole way; our destinations were well lit; and I had done 3 take-offs and landings in the past week at night with no landing light quite comfortably.We departed at XE04 UTC for P14. The weather remained clear and calm the entire flight. When we got to the vicinity of P14; we noticed the airport beacon was functioning normally and we clicked on the runway lights using the CTAF. After checking AWOS; I elected to land on runway 21 so I entered a left; rectangular pattern for runway 21. At about 5 feet above the numbers on very short final; I saw the numbers '21' but they looked odd - they had what appeared to be white rectangles scattered about. Initially; I thought perhaps they were reflectors on the numbers. I put in a touch of power and pulled the nose up slightly to land past the numbers since it looked strange. My passenger commented that they looked like milk jugs. I commenced an uneventful full-stop landing and pulled up to the fuel pumps. We noted that one of the taxiways had barriers. We decided there were enough odd things that happened during that flight that we should call it a day and continue our flight in the morning (landing light out; panel clock stopped midflight; runway numbers looked odd; barriers on taxiway). We pulled the plane to parking and tied it down. A pick-up pulled up. The driver mentioned the runway was closed and it was NOTAM'd. I checked again and saw two NOTAMs closing both runways were posted at XE03 UTC on that day; one minute before I started the engine for that flight. The driver also said that the ground vehicles that would be performing work (the reason the runways were closed) would have radios and that it should be no problem to coordinate with them to depart in the morning.The next morning; I called the phone number in the NOTAMs to request permission to depart. The individual who answered was with the city of Holbrook and just said the airport was closed. I mentioned the NOTAM said I could call this number for permission to depart. He said he was unaware of this and gave me another city number to call. Since he didn't seem to understand the NOTAM system and since the number he gave me was not affiliated with the airport; I made the decision that contacting the construction vehicles at the airport (I was standing on the ramp by my plane) and coordinating with them would be safe and aligned with the intent of the NOTAM. I did not call the number he provided. Before starting the engine on my aircraft; I spoke to them by handheld radio on CTAF. They said to call them up when I was ready for take-off and they'd move. I started the plane; did my run-up; called them and they said they were clear of the runway which I was able to visually confirm before take-off roll. When I pulled onto the runway; I saw what was on the numbers. They were what looked like white; 20 LB sand bags standing upright on end. There were about two dozen arranged in an X. That would have significantly damaged my aircraft's landing gear had I landed 20 feet sooner. I used a taxiway that got me onto the runway in front of the sandbags and took-off uneventfully (there was still almost 6000 usable feet of runway). Having a minimum time between posting a NOTAM about an airport closure and actually closing an airport of at least 24-hrs would have prevented this. Disabling the airport beacon and/or runway lights for an unusable airport would have also been a clear signal not to land - having all the lights working at the closed airport was deceptive. The landing light may have shown me the sandbags in time to do a go-around but maybe not.

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.