Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Weather
We were flying from Fresno to Van Nuys. While flying in the San Joaquin Valley we encountered numerous ceilings and clouds and tried climbing above them two times only to descend later. When we were south of Bakersfield; we tried climbing to 9;500 FT. While the visibility was great; there was an overcast layer in all directions; so I decided we should turn back; descend to 5;500 FT; and continue VFR at that altitude while following I-5 through the Tejon Pass.As we got closer to the mountains; the clouds became lower. I then descended to 5;000 FT. We were able to stay out of the clouds and visibility was adequate; but the proximity to terrain did not seem very safe. I decided to continue on and came close to turning us back around to cancel the flight momentarily. However; after a few miles; the weather became incredibly better and we were able to climb higher and land at Van Nuys without issue.This event was very alarming because I really underestimated the height of the clouds and how low we would be while flying over the Tejon Pass - I think 5;500 FT MSL would be barely safe while flying over the pass; but flying 5;000 FT MSL is too low; especially in those weather conditions. I will not attempt to ever fly over that pass again lower than 5;500 FT when VFR.
An instrument rated flight instructor aboard a PA-38 enroute between FAT and VNY attempted to fly below the overcast through Tejon Pass and got uncomfortably close to the ground before the ceiling lifted allowing a climb to a safer altitude.