IN NIGHTTIME CONDITIONS AND LOW STRATUS; A PA32 VFR INBOUND TO HWD ARPT MISIDENTS THE FIELD WITH OAK ARPT.

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ON THE NIGHT OF JUN/SAT/04; I WAS DSNDING FOR THE HWD ARPT UNDER RADAR SVCS WITH NORCAL APCH. PILOTAGE AND GPS NAV WERE IN USE. AT THE NORMAL LOCATION; RADAR SVCS WERE TERMINATED AND INSTRUCTION TO CHANGE TO ADVISORY FREQ ISSUED. I SWITCHED TO ADVISORY; AS THE TWR AT HWD WAS NOT IN OP. I TRIGGERED THE PLT CTLED LIGHTING AND MADE THE NORMAL INBOUND RPT AT APPROX 9 MI TO THE N. A LOW STRATUS LAYER HAD ACCUMULATED IN THE VICINITY OF CAL STATE HAYWARD; AND AS A RESULT I MODIFIED MY APCH TO THE W. I EXPECTED TO SEE THE LAYOUT OF THE RWY LIGHTS AHEAD AND SLIGHTLY TO THE L. I COULD NOT MAKE OUT THE ARPT ENVIRONMENT VISUALLY AS I CONTINUED CLOSER. I MADE ANOTHER RADIO CALL INDICATING MY POS 3 MI TO THE NNW. I NOTED THE GPS POS AT THAT TIME AND THE COURSE SHOWED THE ARPT STRAIGHT AHEAD. IN SEARCHING FOR THE ARPT; THE PLT IN THE R SEAT SIGHTED IDENTIFIABLE RWY LIGHTS AND A ROTATING BEACON. I CONFIRMED THE LIGHTS AND PROCEEDED TO MAKE A RADIO RPT ON THE BASE FOR RWY 28. I THEN TURNED ABOUT FINAL AND RPTED 3 MI FINAL. AS I COMPLETED THE TURN; I REALIZED THE APCH LIGHTING SYS DID NOT AGREE WITH THOSE AT HAYWARD. I DEDUCED THAT I HAD INADVERTENTLY ORIENTED THE ACFT FOR OAKLAND AND PROCEEDED TO MAKE A R TURN BACK TO WHERE HAYWARD IS. I COMPLETED THE TURN AND COULD STILL NOT MAKE OUT THE ARPT ENVIRONMENT AT HWD. TO BE CERTAIN; I CONTINUED THE TURN AGAIN BACK TO WHAT I WAS SURE TO BE OAK. I POSITIVELY IDENTED IT (THE ARPT) AS OAK AND AGAIN TURNED R TOWARDS HWD. THE GPS STILL CONFIRMED HWD STRAIGHT AHEAD AND I FOLLOWED IN UNTIL THE RWY LIGHTS BECAME MORE CLRLY DEFINED. FROM THIS POINT; A NORMAL LNDG SAW THE FLT TO COMPLETION. MIXED VFR CONDITIONS; DENSE URBAN LIGHTING; ADJACENT AIRSPACE/ARPT PROX AND BRIGHT/EASILY IDENTIFIABLE LIGHTING AT OAK CONTRASTED TO LESS NOTICEABLE LIGHTING AT HWD; CONTRIBUTED TO THE ERROR IN RECOGNITION OF OAK VICE HWD. ADDITIONALLY; I MADE THE ERROR OF NOT DOWN-SCALING THE GPS; WHICH COULD HAVE MORE ACCURATELY DEPICTED THE TRUE ORIENTATION OF THE AIRPLANE TO THE DEST ARPT. INACCURATE IDENT OF THE ARPT AND SUGGESTION BY THE PNF COMBINED WITH UNCERTAINTY ON THE PART OF THE PF ARE HUMAN RELATED FACTORS IN THIS OCCURRENCE.