PA28A PLT FLIES INTO INST CONDITIONS ON VFR FLT PLAN.

1999-10 · NASA ASRS report 453079

Date: 1999-10 · Aircraft: PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior · Phase: cruise

Anomalies: deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|inflight-event-encounter-vfr-in-imc|inflight-event-encounter-weather-turbulence

Synopsis

PA28A PLT FLIES INTO INST CONDITIONS ON VFR FLT PLAN.

Narrative

IT WAS A SIMPLE VFR FLT FROM BDR TO MMK. MY FRIEND FLEW THE FIRST LEG. AS WE CLBED TO 3500 FT MSL; WE WERE SURPRISED BY HOW POOR THE FORWARD VISIBILITY WAS. WE QUESTIONED WHETHER WE SHOULD CONTINUE OR RETURN AND DECIDED IF WE DSNDED TO 2500 FT MSL THE VISIBILITY WOULD IMPROVE. THE VISIBILITY WAS POOR DUE TO HAZE. I ESTIMATE FORWARD VISIBILITY WAS ABOUT 3-4 MI. I FLEW THE LEG BACK. WE TOOK OFF AT ABOUT XA10 LCL TIME. I CLBED TO 3000 FT; ON THE WAY GETTING THE ATIS AT BDR. BDR RPTED NO CEILING AND VISIBILITY BETTER THAN 10 MI. WITHIN MINS OF LEVELING; WE SAW WISPS OF CLOUDS AND THEN BEFORE WE KNEW IT WE WERE IN IMC. MY FRIEND SUGGESTED WE DSND BELOW THE CLOUDS; BUT I DECIDED TO CLB ABOVE THEM (WE COULD TELL IT WAS NOT A THICK LAYER. UPON CLBING; I CONTACTED NEW YORK APCH ON 126.95 AND ASKED FOR AN IFR CLRNC TO BDR. WE WERE CLRED; BASICALLY FLEW VMC BACK TO BDR; AND LANDED WITHOUT EVENT (WE HAD THE ILS RWY 6 APCH). IN RETROSPECT; THINGS MIGHT HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT IF: 1) I HAD DSNDED IMMEDIATELY UPON SEEING WISPS OF CLOUDS. MY CONCERN; HOWEVER; WAS HOW LOW I'D HAVE TO GO. 2) THE TEMP/DEWPOINT SPREAD WAS 4 DEGS C. THIS COMBINED WITH THE HAZE WE OBSERVED ON THE FLT MMK AND THE SETTING SUN (LOWER TEMPS) MIGHT HAVE GIVEN US SOME IDEA THAT CLOUDS COULD FORM AT LOWER ALTS. 3) FLYING DURING DUSK MADE IT MUCH MORE DIFFICULT TO SEE THE CLOUDS.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

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