An pilot reported canceling his IFR flight plan and diverting to okk because of thunderstorms along ...

Narrative:

I filed IFR. The briefer had advised that a high pressure system prevailed along my route of flight that that there was a weak cold front in the area and 'scattered' thunderstorms could develop. The radar image was clear for the entire route upon my departure. This changed soon. I soon noticed building cumulus clouds and even an anvil cloud ahead. I thought I might be able to go around some of the build-ups; but soon realized the gaps were closing in and I decided to abort the trip. North of indianapolis; I contacted indy approach and asked for a destination. This was granted and I changed direction. I was handed off to grissom. I was flying in VMC. Okk was in sight and closer than my revised destination so I canceled IFR and headed toward okk. It appeared that it might be possible to go around the storm systems to the east; so I flew past okk to take a better look. The situation didn't improve so I headed back to okk. This is where the trouble started okk had two intersecting runways. Mie also has two intersecting runways of similar configuration and an operating tower. I picked the wrong airport diagram from my flight guide and contacted the tower at muncie. The tower could not see me but advised me to turn base and land on runway 32. I lined up for runway 32 (at okk) and began my descent to land. I lost radio contact and realized I was talking to mie and landed at okk. I went around and contacted the now very confused operator at mie and told him of my mistake. He gave me a squawk number and a frequency to contact grissom. Grissom located me on radar; confirmed my location and instructed me to go local frequency. The landing at okk was uneventful. I looked at the radar at okk. The decision to abort was definitely correct. The line of storms stretched from lake erie to southern illinois. My problem was that I didn't take enough time to determine that I had the correct airport information. This created a great deal of concern and confusion at muncie. That could have caused problems and diversion for other aircraft. I will definitely take much more care in the future to identify the proper flight guide airport diagram to avoid this type of mistake.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Pilot reported canceling his IFR flight plan and diverting to OKK because of thunderstorms along his proposed route. However; confused he contacted nearby Tower MIE which had the same runway configuration as his destination OKK.

Narrative: I filed IFR. The briefer had advised that a high pressure system prevailed along my route of flight that that there was a weak cold front in the area and 'scattered' thunderstorms could develop. The radar image was clear for the entire route upon my departure. This changed soon. I soon noticed building cumulus clouds and even an anvil cloud ahead. I thought I might be able to go around some of the build-ups; but soon realized the gaps were closing in and I decided to abort the trip. North of Indianapolis; I contacted Indy Approach and asked for a destination. This was granted and I changed direction. I was handed off to Grissom. I was flying in VMC. OKK was in sight and closer than my revised destination so I canceled IFR and headed toward OKK. It appeared that it might be possible to go around the storm systems to the east; so I flew past OKK to take a better look. The situation didn't improve so I headed back to OKK. This is where the trouble started OKK had two intersecting runways. MIE also has two intersecting runways of similar configuration and an operating Tower. I picked the wrong airport diagram from my flight guide and contacted the Tower at Muncie. The Tower could not see me but advised me to turn base and land on Runway 32. I lined up for Runway 32 (at OKK) and began my descent to land. I lost radio contact and realized I was talking to MIE and landed at OKK. I went around and contacted the now very confused Operator at MIE and told him of my mistake. He gave me a squawk number and a frequency to contact Grissom. Grissom located me on radar; confirmed my location and instructed me to go local frequency. The landing at OKK was uneventful. I looked at the radar at OKK. The decision to abort was definitely correct. The line of storms stretched from Lake Erie to Southern Illinois. My problem was that I didn't take enough time to determine that I had the correct airport information. This created a great deal of concern and confusion at Muncie. That could have caused problems and diversion for other aircraft. I will definitely take much more care in the future to identify the proper flight guide airport diagram to avoid this type of mistake.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	892077
Time
Date	201005
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	OKK.Airport
State Reference	IN
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft High Wing 1 Eng Fixed Gear
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 11 Flight Crew Total 810 Flight Crew Type 786
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

An pilot reported canceling his IFR flight plan and diverting to okk because of thunderstorms along his proposed route. However; confused he contacted nearby tower mie which had the same runway configuration as his destination okk.