PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 9; Flight Crew Total 300; Flight Crew Type 300
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors; Weather
My passenger and I were on a return flight back to our home airport. When we departed we knew the weather was good most of the way but looked questionable for the last 100 miles but radar and METARs looked like there may be an opening to complete the trip. We planned to stop if it looked like we couldn't make it VFR. (I am low-time instrument rated but not current.) There were several TFRs scheduled in the morning along our path for a Presidential tour so we wanted to at least get past that before morning.As we progressed the ceiling started to get lower so we landed to check the weather. The airport was very small with no weather info but I was able to use my handheld devices to get some information. We decided to press on for another short leg to what appeared to be a little bigger airport with better facilities. We made that leg; with low ceilings but found the airport did have weather but even fewer other services. We decided to proceed despite the low ceilings and impending dusk to a large airport where we could find a hotel until the weather cleared in the morning. We made the leg but ceilings continued to lower with rain as well. Dusk became dark and there were several tall windmills on our path. It was a lot closer than I prefer between the obstacles and the low ceiling. I was concentrating on visual references and finding the airport and did not communicate on CTAF. After landing uneventfully; I realized that there was a commercial flight that landed not long after we did. Overall; there were far too many things that could have gone wrong in the chain of events.We should have stayed another night and left in the morning; and just deviated around the TFRs; it would have been fewer miles and less time and money than we ended up with anyway...AND a lot safer. We also could have chosen to stay at the first; smaller airport and not continued into deteriorating conditions. Uncomfortable is always better than dead; or on the front page of the news!
A PA28 pilot related the poor decisions he made in attempting to complete his return flight to his home field when weather conditions were marginal; night was falling and circumnavigating TFRs would be necessary.