PVT PLT IN A PA28 SUFFERS AN INADVERTENT CLASS C ENTRY WITHOUT CLRNC IN A NIGHT OP. RPTR ADMITS TO BEING UNSURE OF HIS POS FROM THE CLASS C SPACE AND CHANGING TO APCH TOO LATE. WHEN ON FREQ; CTLR VECTORS HIM AWAY FROM THE ARPT DUE TO TFC.

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ON AUG/XA/97 I WAS FLYING FROM MANITOWOC; WI; TO GREEN BAY; WI; AT NIGHT ON A PLEASURE FLT. I NOTICED A LARGE FIRE AROUND GREEN BAY AND DECIDED TO PROCEED TO SEE WHAT IT WAS. DUE TO THE NIGHT CONDITIONS AND LACK OF POSITIONAL AWARENESS; I DID NOT REMEMBER TO CALL GREEN BAY APCH RIGHT AWAY. WHEN I DID CALL I SAID THAT I WAS 20 NM TO THE SE (THIS WOULD HAVE PUT ME OUTSIDE CLASS C AIRSPACE). SHORTLY AFTER THE CTLR CONTACT; HE REQUESTED ME TO TURN 180 DEGS TO AVOID AIRLINER TFC ON FINAL TO THE ARPT. DUE TO LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OF MY POS; I MAY HAVE TRANSGRESSED INTO CLASS C AIRSPACE BEFORE RECEIVING PERMISSION TO ENTER. THE CTLR DID NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT ANY TRANSGRESSIONS OF CLASS C AIRSPACE AND I CANCELED VFR ADVISORIES AND RETURNED TO MANITOWOC; WI. THERE WERE MANY WAYS OF DETERMINING POS. IF I HAD TUNED IN GREEN BAY VOR AND READ THE DME IN MY ACFT; I WOULD HAVE KNOWN EXACTLY HOW FAR I WAS AWAY. LIKEWISE; I HAVE A LORAN IN MY ACFT THAT WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING. I ALSO COULD HAVE CHKED THE CHART OUT MORE CLOSELY WITH LIGHTED TWRS ON THE GND. BECAUSE THE FLT WAS NOT PLANNED AND WAS SUPPOSED TO BE JUST AN 'AROUND THE LCL AREA' SIGHTSEEING FLT; I DID NOT THINK TO CHK OUT GREEN BAY FREQS AND DISTANCES UNTIL I REALIZED THAT I WAS GETTING 'TOO CLOSE.' NEXT TIME I WILL PLAN THE FLT MORE ATTENTIVELY AND CHK OUT WHERE THE ACFT IS GOING LEADING BY 40 MI OR MORE BEFORE WE GET IN AREAS THAT ARE PROBS.