An sr-22 pilot on a VFR flight found himself between a cloud layer above and class D airspace below ...

Narrative:

Earlier in the day the ceilings were about 3;500 to 4;000 ft so I decided to make the return trip VFR with flight following and stay under the 3;000 ft floor of the bravo [airspace] since that is what ATC would have me do had I filed. All was well until I reached the shoreline. I was at 2;700 ft and was cleared by approach through the class D at or above 2;500 ft; but had to stay below the bravo at 3;000 ft. As I reached land the ceiling descended to just about 2;700 or 2;800 ft; so I descended to 2;500 ft but that still put me through the base of the clouds. Then ATC warned me about traffic ahead on a missed [approach] and suddenly I found myself trapped in and out of the clouds; unable to descend without busting the delta airspace. Meanwhile I could not see the traffic which was being called out by the traffic warning system as straight ahead. I was able to turn into clear weather away from the traffic but busted VFR minimums and descended into the top 100 feet of the delta [airspace]. I should have monitored the ATIS while I was over the ocean and asked for a clearance when it was clear that I could not maintain VFR minimums or circled when the weather closed in and asked for a clearance. Next time I will get the clearance first and cancel if the weather accommodates.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An SR-22 pilot on a VFR flight found himself between a cloud layer above and Class D airspace below and with unseen traffic ahead. Pilot was eventually able to reach VMC conditions; but not before violating the airspace and cloud clearance criteria.

Narrative: Earlier in the day the ceilings were about 3;500 to 4;000 FT so I decided to make the return trip VFR with Flight Following and stay under the 3;000 FT floor of the Bravo [airspace] since that is what ATC would have me do had I filed. All was well until I reached the shoreline. I was at 2;700 FT and was cleared by Approach through the Class D at or above 2;500 FT; but had to stay below the Bravo at 3;000 FT. As I reached land the ceiling descended to just about 2;700 or 2;800 FT; so I descended to 2;500 FT but that still put me through the base of the clouds. Then ATC warned me about traffic ahead on a missed [approach] and suddenly I found myself trapped in and out of the clouds; unable to descend without busting the Delta airspace. Meanwhile I could not see the traffic which was being called out by the traffic warning system as straight ahead. I was able to turn into clear weather away from the traffic but busted VFR minimums and descended into the top 100 feet of the Delta [airspace]. I should have monitored the ATIS while I was over the ocean and asked for a clearance when it was clear that I could not maintain VFR minimums or circled when the weather closed in and asked for a clearance. Next time I will get the clearance first and cancel if the weather accommodates.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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	1035367
Time
Date	201209
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	Marginal
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	SR22
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	VFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 23 Flight Crew Total 1956 Flight Crew Type 101
Events
Anomaly	Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

An sr-22 pilot on a VFR flight found himself between a cloud layer above and class D airspace below and with unseen traffic ahead. Pilot was eventually able to reach VMC conditions; but not before violating the airspace and cloud clearance criteria.