C172 pilot on VFR flight plan inadvertently enters IMC during descent and approach to destination ai...

Attributes
ACN	930704
Time
Date	201101
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	Mixed
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	VFR
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 16.9 Flight Crew Total 55.6 Flight Crew Type 55.6
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural FAR Inflight Event / Encounter VFR In IMC Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Narrative:

I had been in contact with flight watch and flight service and was advised that the conditions were still VFR at 4;000 ovc. I continued inbound to land and when I was cleared into the airspace; I entered a few clouds that were obscured against the heavy fog that was coming in. At this time; all of the surrounding airports were also covered up by this same front. I descended down to 1;000 ft MSL to try and exit the cloud layer; which did not work; so I climbed to a safer altitude. While the ATIS was still calling for VFR; the ceiling was actually 900 ovc. I was cleared to land on runway 36 at which time I got into some turbulence when I came out of the clouds to see that the visibility was about two miles. I was not able to see the airport; and was using my GPS as my primary navigation to head towards the airport. I asked tower to turn on the runway lights; at which time I could barely see the threshold lights and the beacon. The landing was normal.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C172 pilot on VFR flight plan inadvertently enters IMC during descent and approach to destination airport. GPS and a request for runway lights aid in locating the airport and a normal landing ensues.

Narrative: I had been in contact with Flight Watch and Flight Service and was advised that the conditions were still VFR at 4;000 OVC. I continued inbound to land and when I was cleared into the airspace; I entered a few clouds that were obscured against the heavy fog that was coming in. At this time; all of the surrounding airports were also covered up by this same front. I descended down to 1;000 FT MSL to try and exit the cloud layer; which did not work; so I climbed to a safer altitude. While the ATIS was still calling for VFR; the ceiling was actually 900 OVC. I was cleared to land on Runway 36 at which time I got into some turbulence when I came out of the clouds to see that the visibility was about two miles. I was not able to see the airport; and was using my GPS as my primary navigation to head towards the airport. I asked Tower to turn on the runway lights; at which time I could barely see the threshold lights and the beacon. The landing was normal.

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.