I had a text book perfect VFR flight today untill I messed up my landing runway. I was cleared for 9R and I landed on 9C. 
I flew the downwind leg parallel to 9L and spotted what I thought was 9R on the base leg.
Had I flow a proc it would have probably been fine but I waited to get runway assignment from the tower and then flew the given visual approach. I think I was confused between all the taxiways and runways. At night it probably would have been easier since runaways are easier to see.
AI ATC didn’t seem to mind at least and the actual runway seemed more appropriate as it was the smallest of the 3 without ILS
I know that happens IRL and sometimes pilots land on the taxiways.
How do you avoid making that mistake when flying visual into a new airport.
Of course, having the plates with you in a tablet helps a ton since you’d be situationally aware of the overall layout of the airport. Part of your brief before even starting your flight should include the arriving airport layout/configuration. Since I don’t know what equipment you were operating, there’s also RAAS (if available) to help confirm you are approaching he correct runway. I’m sure there are quite a few other comments to come.
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I did check everything in advance this time be familiar. But the airport grounds wound up being much larger than I expected.
I got a little thrown as I had manually tuned the radio but the sim didn’t seem to realize I had. So I had to pick nearby and by the time I made contact, things just happened too fast. Even though I was a mile from the airport’s airspace, it was on page two. Ugh, I hate that ATC menu.
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I had a G1000, but I was trying to stick visual for the proc.
If I was coming in to an airport like that IRL with the G1000, I’d have probably had the visual proc loaded just to help.
But given that blasted ATC menu, I didn’t have quite enough time this time.
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Hi,
If you fly an airplane that is equipped with an ILS receiver and indicator/display, ALWAYS dial in the correct ILS frequency and course. Even when on a visual approach. Do cross check your flight path with that ILS.
It has saved me from looking at a wrong runway.
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