Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Rotorcraft; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 40; Flight Crew Total 1430; Flight Crew Type 40
Situational Awareness; Time Pressure
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter VFR In IMC
Weather
I was at ZZZ airport; preparing to depart for ZZZ1 airport; but the weather forecast had deteriorated to low ceilings and mountain obscuration for the first part of the route. We decided to take off; realizing that we might have to return but as we flew; it quickly became apparent that the entire mountain range we had to cross was obscured. We landed back at ZZZ; went inside and reviewed the weather; noticing that the satellites showed thinner coverage was about to pass overhead. We went outside; noticed breaks in the cloud coverage. At this point; I had an airport return deadline and my [passenger need to be back as well]. We were very close to being late. We started up and I contacted ground; asking for a climb to 'VFR on top'. Ground control caught me by surprise by issuing me a clearance that sounded a lot like an IFR clearance which rattled me a little because I don't have an IFR rating in airplanes; only helicopters. I didn't realize until landing later in the day and looking it up that the correct term for what I was looking for was 'VFR over the top'; not 'VFR on top'; which is an IFR clearance. Feeling a little confused; I went along and fortunately; ground called me back shortly and said it was denied by approach. I felt relieved but a little shaken up because I suspected that I had just requested an IFR clearance without an IFR rating. Then; we took off; left East to class E airspace and began climbing to the cloud gaps that we had noticed to get over the clouds & beyond the coastal mountain range to clear skies. As we circled to climb toward the gaps; it appeared that everything was fine but at about 5;000 feet; I realized that we weren't going to be able to climb fast enough to make it over the clouds. Looking right and left; I realized that the clouds; which had appeared to have plenty of room at first; were actually closing in and if we turned; we ran the risk of going IMC with most of the cloud layer to pass through on our way down. Looking up; I realized that the shortest route to safety was up. Our climb to the top was over in about 20-30 seconds and didn't involve much time in the clouds but it was a long 20 seconds because I realized the situation that I was in was in violation of the FARs. As far as human factors go; I know that my deadline and my [passenger's] commitment influenced my tolerance for risking the climb-out as well as my desire to get home rather than staying another night. Also; the fact that we had already tried to depart once played a role because I felt like we would be trapped if we didn't try to climb out VFR. In addition; my exchange with the controller shook me up a little which left me feeling defensive about what I was doing. That probably contributed to continuing with my obviously poor decision to try to climb out VFR. Another contributing factor was my poor judgment of climb performance which is probably because I only have about 30 hours in the Cessna 172. The remainder of my airplane time is in the 182 which has a little better performance.
C-172 pilot reported that while attempting to get into VFR conditions he climbed through clouds without an IFR rating or an IFR flight plan.