Narrative:

I believe I landed without a landing clearance in ZZZ. I had been flying all day and was admittedly very tired. I landed sometime around midnight. Approach control gave me a clearance for the visual approach. I read back the clearance. He then warned me of wake turbulence and told me to plan on taking any exit off the runway of my choice. This is where the confusion started for me. I told him that I would take [a particular] taxiway and he said that would be great. I believe in my tired state that I may have interpreted the previous approach clearance as a clearance to land when in fact it was a clearance for the visual approach. The approach controller didn't hand me off to tower; which further made me think I was cleared to land. I landed and told him I would indeed make [the taxiway]; to which he responded I was still with approach. When I switched to tower he asked for a radio check; I responded that I was clear of the runway and stopped on [the] taxiway. He responded back that he was looking for me on his frequency.it took me a good hour to realize that I think I may have landed without a landing clearance. The lesson goes back much earlier than the approach clearance. I have now discovered how fatigue affects my mental ability to respond to a situation that is a little out of the normal. It is important to me now to pay close attention to my physiology and how I am feeling before flying. In addition to my fatigue I hadn't eaten any food for about 7 to 8 hours. It ended up being completely non eventful other than the possibility of not having a landing clearance.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: King Air pilot reported landing without clearance due to confusion and communication breakdown with Approach Control clearance.

Narrative: I believe I landed without a landing clearance in ZZZ. I had been flying all day and was admittedly very tired. I landed sometime around midnight. Approach Control gave me a clearance for the visual approach. I read back the clearance. He then warned me of wake turbulence and told me to plan on taking any exit off the runway of my choice. This is where the confusion started for me. I told him that I would take [a particular] taxiway and he said that would be great. I believe in my tired state that I may have interpreted the previous approach clearance as a clearance to land when in fact it was a clearance for the visual approach. The Approach Controller didn't hand me off to Tower; which further made me think I was cleared to land. I landed and told him I would indeed make [the taxiway]; to which he responded I was still with Approach. When I switched to Tower he asked for a radio check; I responded that I was clear of the runway and stopped on [the] taxiway. He responded back that he was looking for me on his frequency.It took me a good hour to realize that I think I may have landed without a landing clearance. The lesson goes back much earlier than the approach clearance. I have now discovered how fatigue affects my mental ability to respond to a situation that is a little out of the normal. It is important to me now to pay close attention to my physiology and how I am feeling before flying. In addition to my fatigue I hadn't eaten any food for about 7 to 8 hours. It ended up being completely non eventful other than the possibility of not having a landing clearance.

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.