Small Aircraft
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 37; Flight Crew Total 260; Flight Crew Type 95
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence; Inflight Event / Encounter VFR In IMC
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Weather; Human Factors
I took off from CRW with full tanks in VFR conditions intending to travel direct to ZZZ or alternately ZZZ1 in order to escape a narrow band of frontal weather and precip that was approaching Charleston from NNW. CRW METAR was reporting calm winds 2800 ceiling 10 miles vis and ZZZ was reporting VFR and 5500 ceiling. I requested flight following to ZZZ. After takeoff I maintained a heading of 230 and an altitude at or below 3500 as requested. Off CRW the overcast ceiling rose allowing me to climb to around 3000. About 4 miles west of CRW I encountered moderate rain that partially obscured my path forward. I began a turn to the left towards a clear area and approach suggested a SW heading to avoid the precip; which I followed. About 3 miles SW later I encountered more light rain and fog; and approach suggested a west heading I believe; which I followed. As I continued west light haze and fog began to obscure both the ground and the ceiling; which I believe was around 6000. Despite this I had no problem maintaining VFR cloud separation and vis and could discern the horizon. I expressed some visibility concerns to ATC and they asked if I'd prefer to return to CRW; which after some back and forth discussion about the size of the precipitation area I decided to continue west as it was determined that I was about half way through. Eventually fog patches almost completely obscured the ground and the edges of the horizon became obscured by broken clouds and mist. Very gradually the horizon became difficult to see; and Haze obscured the VFR path forward. I then encountered a series of closed passages of about 1.5 mile vis within the precipitation which were separated by brief moments of IMC; and immediately alerted ATC that my ability to continue VFR was impaired. For the next few minutes I experienced intermittent IMC; and told ATC of my intention to return to CRW when able. During periods of IMC I concentrated only on maintaining level flight; which was difficult due to my relative inexperience with the old style electric turn and bank indicator; having done all my recent hood training with an AI equipped plane. During periods when I could discern a horizon I followed ATC suggestions and made careful shallow turns in the direction of CRW using my compass and consumer GPS ForeFlight map. My experience with this particular aircraft allowed me to generally maintain my altitude in IMC as long as my wings were level; which ATC greatly assisted with by alerting me to any errant turns they detected. As I approached 3 miles SW of CRW the mist cleared and offered a better view of the overcast layers below and above me. Ahead to the right I noticed a dark spot of ground through a large opening in the overcast and reported to ATC that I was beginning a visual descent; which they had previously suggested. Once below the overcast layer tower instructed entry into left base for 23 and an easy landing was achieved. The single biggest cause of this incident was my failure to wait for better weather; due to my desire not to be stuck for multiple days near a cold front with thunderstorms. I never thought to [advise ATC of an emergency situation] due to the gradually escalating nature of the incident and my need to concentrate solely on flying once VFR flight was compromised. Outcomes would have likely been much worse without ATC's greatly appreciated help and my recent studying and practice on using a turn and bank indicator to maintain level flight.
GA pilot reported encountering IMC conditions while on a VFR flight that resulted in a return to the departure airport.