Narrative:

I was on a VFR flight and moderate turbulence was encountered as the flight advisories had indicated. The ceilings and viabilities diminished 59 miles south of the landing destination. The weather was not forecast to go that low. To continue VFR I did a 180 degree turn and climbed on top of a broken cloud layer at 4;300' to 6;500' MSL. With a very strong tail wind I elected to fly to ZZZ. ZZZ was the closest controlled airport. I contacted the tower and requested an IFR radar approach. The tower was unable so I contacted center and requested a radar approach. Center issued vectors for an ILS. Now the next problem occurred. The turbulence bounced my approach charts; pens; and papers beyond my reach. No pen; no paper; and no charts makes an approach challenging. Center then issued appropriate information to make the approach. The day was saved!! Not yet; while cleared to intercept the localizer; I noticed a flag on the CDI indicator. I flew the missed approach. Center issued more vectors; the weather went down to 1;500 feet overcast and ten miles visibility; then to 1;000 feet overcast and 7 miles visibility and the dog in the back seat had a bowel movement. Let's not become distracted. Flying just became more serious and it smells bad too. On the next approach I still have a flagged CDI needle. This results in a missed approach followed by more vectors from center. On the third attempt with the glide slope functioning and vectors guiding my aircraft to the runway; the clouds give way and a visual landing is accomplished. As a 10;000 hour pilot; I was not going to allow the chain of events to overwhelm me. However; it took a lot of pilot experience and ATC assistance to bring the aircraft safely down. Unforcasted weather; the fault of the pilot to secure approach charts prior to entering moderate turbulence and the failure of the CDI were all factors that contributed to this report. The aircraft; a well maintained low time M20C; has been placed into maintenance.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: M20 pilot encounters low ceilings and visibilities not in the preflight forecast. A climb on top and diversion to an airport with an ILS is made. Turbulence tosses approach charts about making them unavailable for reference and the CDI fails. The third approach is successful using alignment vectors from ATC and the aircraft's glideslope.

Narrative: I was on a VFR flight and moderate turbulence was encountered as the flight advisories had indicated. The ceilings and viabilities diminished 59 miles south of the landing destination. The weather was not forecast to go that low. To continue VFR I did a 180 degree turn and climbed on top of a broken cloud layer at 4;300' to 6;500' MSL. With a very strong tail wind I elected to fly to ZZZ. ZZZ was the closest controlled airport. I contacted the tower and requested an IFR radar approach. The tower was unable so I contacted Center and requested a radar approach. Center issued vectors for an ILS. Now the next problem occurred. The turbulence bounced my approach charts; pens; and papers beyond my reach. No pen; no paper; and no charts makes an approach challenging. Center then issued appropriate information to make the approach. The day was saved!! Not yet; while cleared to intercept the localizer; I noticed a flag on the CDI indicator. I flew the missed approach. Center issued more vectors; the weather went down to 1;500 feet overcast and ten miles visibility; then to 1;000 feet overcast and 7 miles visibility and the dog in the back seat had a bowel movement. Let's not become distracted. Flying just became more serious and it smells bad too. On the next approach I still have a flagged CDI needle. This results in a missed approach followed by more vectors from Center. On the third attempt with the glide slope functioning and vectors guiding my aircraft to the runway; the clouds give way and a visual landing is accomplished. As a 10;000 hour pilot; I was not going to allow the chain of events to overwhelm me. However; it took a lot of pilot experience and ATC assistance to bring the aircraft safely down. Unforcasted weather; the fault of the pilot to secure approach charts prior to entering moderate turbulence and the failure of the CDI were all factors that contributed to this report. The aircraft; a well maintained low time M20C; has been placed into maintenance.

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.