Narrative:

On IFR flight plan going to tvi; ATC gave us a descent to 4000 ft and asked us to advise the airport in sight. It was late afternoon and the sun was just on the horizon and directly on our nose forward visibility was greatly restricted as the sun was somewhat blinding. We were at 4000 ft and looking for the airport; which we saw on our nose about 3-5 miles out. We advised the airport in sight about 5 miles out at 12 o'clock and told ATC we could cancel IFR. Tvi is an uncontrolled field and we wanted to transition to unicom to check traffic and advise our position and intentions. We were talking to valdosta approach. Valdosta said 'roger; squawk VFR and frequency change approved.' we were somewhat rushed to get the airplane slowed; configured; and established. We entered the traffic pattern; announced our position; completed the approach and landing checklists and turned final. We announced our position on final twice; searched for conflicting traffic; and landed. After landing and taxing to the FBO; we realized that we had landed at vld instead of tvi. Immediately upon realizing this we called valdosta tower and told them of our mistake. This was our error we were looking into the sun and misidentified vld as tvi. Contributing factors were ATC's descending us to 4000 ft so far from our destination and asking us to report the airport in sight when we were well beyond visual range of tvi but within range of vld. It would have also been helpful had ATC questioned our advising airport in sight when we were beyond visual range or at least told us to contact valdosta tower as we were very close to their airspace. But; had we; the crew taken extra steps to positively identify the airport this event would have not happened.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Light transport flight crew reported landing at the wrong airport due to challenging visual conditions.

Narrative: On IFR flight plan going to TVI; ATC gave us a descent to 4000 ft and asked us to advise the airport in sight. It was late afternoon and the sun was just on the horizon and directly on our nose Forward visibility was greatly restricted as the sun was somewhat blinding. We were at 4000 ft and looking for the airport; which we saw on our nose about 3-5 miles out. We advised the airport in sight about 5 miles out at 12 o'clock and told ATC we could cancel IFR. TVI is an uncontrolled field and we wanted to transition to Unicom to check traffic and advise our position and intentions. We were talking to Valdosta approach. Valdosta said 'roger; squawk VFR and frequency change approved.' We were somewhat rushed to get the airplane slowed; configured; and established. We entered the traffic pattern; announced our position; completed the approach and landing checklists and turned final. We announced our position on final twice; searched for conflicting traffic; and landed. After landing and taxing to the FBO; we realized that we had landed at VLD instead of TVI. Immediately upon realizing this we called Valdosta tower and told them of our mistake. This was our error we were looking into the sun and misidentified VLD as TVI. Contributing factors were ATC's descending us to 4000 ft so far from our destination and asking us to report the airport in sight when we were well beyond visual range of TVI but within range of VLD. It would have also been helpful had ATC questioned our advising airport in sight when we were beyond visual range or at least told us to contact Valdosta Tower as we were very close to their airspace. But; had we; the crew taken extra steps to positively identify the airport this event would have not happened.

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.