Narrative:

Checked weather and departed. Had been watching the weather; thunderstorms building mostly north. Departed and was forced west; further than I planned due to heavy rain. Had current charts for my trip and a garmin 796 GPS I had recently purchased; with weather capabilities. Forced west to the sarasota area; I contacted approach and they worked me through the class B airspace and directed me to follow the gulf shoreline. Weather was just east of me; sustained light to moderate turbulence; still easily able to remain VFR. Very turbulent weather; and in my small aerobatic aircraft; impossible to read the charts; so I placed them under my right leg and depended on the garmin GPS for VFR navigation as well as working with the controllers. This was working well. Controllers did a great job.due to the distance and time it took to circumnavigate the weather and take the headings the controllers gave me; my original destination was now beyond my fuel limits. I decided to land just north of tampa and using my garmin GPS; I chose (bkv) brooksville; fl. I was somewhat familiar with the airport. I had stopped years before for fuel and thought I was comfortable and slightly familiar with the airport and FBO facility. I advised ATC of my decision for the unscheduled fuel stop about 30 miles out; then advised them that I had the airport in sight about 14 miles away. They told me to squawk 1200 and frequency change approved.checked my GPS for frequencies and listened to the AWOS. I began calling the unicom frequency 123.0 several times; but no answer. Called my positions; downwind; base; final; and landed. I was shocked to find out after landing and taxiing to the FBO that the brooksville (bkv) airport was now a controlled facility. (It was not when I had stopped in the past and my GPS still shows it to be an uncontrolled airport).the GPS frequencies and information was not current for bkv. I was not using my current charts due to the turbulence issues and the effort required to keep the aircraft straight and level. At the time; I felt it was safer to fly the plane and depend on the GPS and tampa approach; then to fight the folding of charts in the tight cockpit and having to let go of the stick. I found that after my recent purchase of this GPS; that my attempt to update the unit several weeks prior to my departure was not completed properly or the unit didn't accept it. I was using a GPS that had stored information that was more than 5 years old and I didn't know it.I have been a pilot for 40 years. I have traveled with this aircraft for over 18 years throughout the united states and canada. This has never happened before. I had no conflict with traffic landing; departing or in the brooksville airspace.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A pilot of an acrobatic aircraft reported diverting to a controlled airport without following normal radio protocol and landing without clearance.

Narrative: Checked weather and departed. Had been watching the weather; thunderstorms building mostly north. Departed and was forced west; further than I planned due to heavy rain. Had current charts for my trip and a Garmin 796 GPS I had recently purchased; with weather capabilities. Forced west to the Sarasota area; I contacted Approach and they worked me through the Class B airspace and directed me to follow the Gulf shoreline. Weather was just east of me; sustained light to moderate turbulence; still easily able to remain VFR. Very turbulent weather; and in my small aerobatic aircraft; impossible to read the charts; so I placed them under my right leg and depended on the Garmin GPS for VFR navigation as well as working with the controllers. This was working well. Controllers did a great job.Due to the distance and time it took to circumnavigate the weather and take the headings the controllers gave me; my original destination was now beyond my fuel limits. I decided to land just North of Tampa and using my Garmin GPS; I chose (BKV) Brooksville; FL. I was somewhat familiar with the airport. I had stopped years before for fuel and thought I was comfortable and slightly familiar with the airport and FBO facility. I advised ATC of my decision for the unscheduled fuel stop about 30 miles out; then advised them that I had the airport in sight about 14 miles away. They told me to squawk 1200 and frequency change approved.Checked my GPS for frequencies and listened to the AWOS. I began calling the UNICOM frequency 123.0 several times; but no answer. Called my positions; downwind; base; final; and landed. I was shocked to find out after landing and taxiing to the FBO that the Brooksville (BKV) airport was now a controlled facility. (It was not when I had stopped in the past and my GPS still shows it to be an uncontrolled airport).The GPS frequencies and information was not current for BKV. I was not using my current charts due to the turbulence issues and the effort required to keep the aircraft straight and level. At the time; I felt it was safer to fly the plane and depend on the GPS and Tampa Approach; then to fight the folding of charts in the tight cockpit and having to let go of the stick. I found that after my recent purchase of this GPS; that my attempt to update the unit several weeks prior to my departure was not completed properly or the unit didn't accept it. I was using a GPS that had stored information that was more than 5 years old and I didn't know it.I have been a pilot for 40 years. I have traveled with this aircraft for over 18 years throughout the United States and Canada. This has never happened before. I had no conflict with traffic landing; departing or in the Brooksville airspace.

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.