Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 50; Flight Crew Total 220; Flight Crew Type 220
Workload; Troubleshooting; Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Distraction
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence; Inflight Event / Encounter VFR In IMC; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Aircraft; Human Factors; Weather
I took an evening pleasure flight to ZZZ for dinner accompanied by my older brother. I acquired a commercially provided weather briefing prior to departing which advised my route was VFR and forecast to be so until around XA00 local time. We landed in ZZZ; grabbed dinner and went back to the airport to head back home with 2.5 hours of fuel on board. I quickly rechecked the weather on my tablet computer using a commercial app and nothing had changed. We took off and departed with a cruising altitude of 5;500 feet indicated. Enroute the weather quickly turned south. I noticed larger CB clouds forming around me; and a thick cloud deck forming in front of me. I opted to drop my altitude to 3;500 feet indicated to maintain VFR cloud clearance and duck below it. Once I crossed the river; the weather seemed to open up. I then decided to climb to 5;000 feet to get a better look of what was going on around me. I executed climbing 360's until I reached 5;000 feet and realized the weather was worse than I thought. It was solid IMC everywhere around me; deteriorating rapidly and it appeared I was in the only VMC conditions around me.I then started checking different enroute weather services to get a picture of what was going on around me. At this point; I had 1.3 hours of fuel left and realized that any airport within range was heavy IMC conditions with ceilings ranging from 600 to 1;400 feet. I then decided to continue towards [my home airport] using my VOR's to track Victor XXX  (I have been doing instrument training the past few months and am fairly familiar with IFR operations in the area. This may have been the wrong move in retrospect but this is what I determined was safest at the time). I maintained 1;000(+/-300feet) feet above the cloud deck for some form of traffic separation; but could not see the ground as it was solid overcast. Shortly after; both NAV 1 and NAV 2 failed; but DME was still operational. I then attempted to radio Center for vectors and help; but to no avail. It appeared my radio could receive but not transmit. I then attempted to navigate back towards [my airport] via my iPad; but the battery died shortly after. At this point; the weather had gotten so poor that flying through clouds became unavoidable. Shortly after; I was in complete IMC in the clouds. I executed an emergency 180 using my turn coordinator and my stopwatch; and held that heading for a few minutes. Realizing it wasn't improving; I decided to climb to get above the deck once again for traffic separation. I climbed for approximately 20 minutes and popped out above the deck at 10;000 feet indicated. It was solid overcast as far as the eye could see. Knowing the gravity of the situation; I told my brother to take his phone out and set an alarm for 15 minutes. I didn't tell him the reason as not to alarm him; but I knew if that alarm went off; we had 30 minutes of fuel and I needed to find a place to get down; quick. At this point; I was very disoriented as to where I was; and had no way to call for help. Using my DME; I determined where I was relative to the tuned VOR/DME by flying different headings; and observing the DME's reaction. I then pulled out my sectional chart; drew a line straight from the VOR; and determined I was roughly 6 miles south of [the airport I took off from]. I then turned direct north and held this heading for 10 more minutes; so as to get far north of the field where I knew there were no obstacles while descending from 10;000 down to 2;000. Once my brother's cell phone got signal; I pulled up a computerized satellite map and used that to line myself up with XXL coming from the north. I then maintained a slow but steady descent as I continued essentially a poor man's GPS approach. I broke through the clouds at roughly 1;200 feet AGL and landed on XXL.
When the forecast weather proved invalid; the pilot of a C-172 found himself and his passenger intermittently VFR in IMC and/or on top.  The dilemma was further compromised by the failure of all VHF communications; both VORs and--a potentially valuable asset--his tablet computer dead due to a dead battery.  Clever thinking and the eventual ability of his passenger's smart phone to display satellite map images permitted him to navigate and arrive safely at his destination.