A28 pilot encounterd unexpected icing conditions during climbout and elected to divert to ZZZ. Repor...

Narrative:

My wife and I departed for our destination after a lunch stop. Arrival from the west had been uneventful with a descent through clouds and ceilings about 3500-4000 MSL. Tops of that layer had been at 5000 MSL with several thousand feet of clear air before another thin layer from about 9000-10000 MSL. On departure; we entered clouds at 3000 MSL; a little lower than expected. We flew out of that layer at 5000 MSL having picked up about 1/8' of clear ice on the temperature probe. (On our piper arrow; the temperature probe is easy to see and accumulates visible ice sooner than any other part of the airplane; making it an ideal 'early warning system.') I was surprised to find another cloud layer almost on top of the first and was back in IMC by 6000 MSL. The plane continued to slowly accumulate ice but I (foolishly) hoped that the second layer would be very thin and I would quickly climbout the top of it. At 8000 MSL we were still IMC and still accumulating ice. I received clearance for descent and lowered the landing gear and pulled the power back to get a 2000 FPM descent to what I assumed would be clear; warm air at 3000 MSL. I was dismayed to still be in IMC at 3000 MSL with ATC telling me that we could not descend further at our position; just west of the ZZZ VOR. ATC offered the GPS 16 approach to ZZZ as the closest option and I took it. We flew in IMC until descending below 2900 MSL on the final approach. By that time; we had over 1/2' of clear ice on the temperature probe. Air temperature on the ground was just +1 C. I use an e-book reader with a subscription to naco charts to give me approach plates for the entire country. My wife and I had significant trouble locating the approach plates for ZZZ. Our GPS; a KLN94; provided lateral navigation but no descent profile so this was a significant problem. Fortunately; another pilot radioed the MDA to me and my wife eventually able to pull up the approach plate. I made several mistakes on this 18 minute flight. Among them: taking off without rechecking metars and pireps; assuming that the weather east of our lunch stop would be essentially the same as the weather to the west; continuing the climb into the second cloud layer; and not immediately returning when I climbed out of 5000 and saw clouds where I did not expect them.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A28 Pilot encounterd unexpected icing conditions during climbout and elected to divert to ZZZ. Reporter had difficulty locating ZZZ in his chart reader.

Narrative: My wife and I departed for our destination after a lunch stop. Arrival from the west had been uneventful with a descent through clouds and ceilings about 3500-4000 MSL. Tops of that layer had been at 5000 MSL with several thousand feet of clear air before another thin layer from about 9000-10000 MSL. On departure; we entered clouds at 3000 MSL; a little lower than expected. We flew out of that layer at 5000 MSL having picked up about 1/8' of clear ice on the temperature probe. (On our Piper Arrow; the temperature probe is easy to see and accumulates visible ice sooner than any other part of the airplane; making it an ideal 'early warning system.') I was surprised to find another cloud layer almost on top of the first and was back in IMC by 6000 MSL. The plane continued to slowly accumulate ice but I (foolishly) hoped that the second layer would be very thin and I would quickly climbout the top of it. At 8000 MSL we were still IMC and still accumulating ice. I received clearance for descent and lowered the landing gear and pulled the power back to get a 2000 FPM descent to what I assumed would be clear; warm air at 3000 MSL. I was dismayed to still be in IMC at 3000 MSL with ATC telling me that we could not descend further at our position; just west of the ZZZ VOR. ATC offered the GPS 16 approach to ZZZ as the closest option and I took it. We flew in IMC until descending below 2900 MSL on the final approach. By that time; we had over 1/2' of clear ice on the temperature probe. Air temperature on the ground was just +1 C. I use an e-book reader with a subscription to NACO charts to give me approach plates for the entire country. My wife and I had significant trouble locating the approach plates for ZZZ. Our GPS; a KLN94; provided lateral navigation but no descent profile so this was a significant problem. Fortunately; another pilot radioed the MDA to me and my wife eventually able to pull up the approach plate. I made several mistakes on this 18 minute flight. Among them: taking off without rechecking METARs and PIREPs; assuming that the weather east of our lunch stop would be essentially the same as the weather to the west; continuing the climb into the second cloud layer; and not immediately returning when I climbed out of 5000 and saw clouds where I did not expect them.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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	857152
Time
Date	200910
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-28R Cherokee Arrow All Series
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb Final Approach Initial Approach Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 35 Flight Crew Total 1100 Flight Crew Type 400
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Other / Unknown Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

A28 pilot encounterd unexpected icing conditions during climbout and elected to divert to ZZZ. Reporter had difficulty locating ZZZ in his chart reader.