Bht-430 pilot inadvertantly entered IMC on a VFR approach and declared an emergency due to the fact ...

Narrative:

During a night time IFR flight in VFR conditions autopilot # 1 stopped working; at the destination hospital deferred and MEL'd the autopilot. Aircraft restricted to VFR only. In cruise flight returning with patient I received weather of 1;300 ft on the AWOS at ZZZ1 and clear at ZZZ2. The weather between the two facilities appeared lower. At 700 AGL the flight became inadvertent IMC. I started a climb; declared an emergency with approach. Approach gave radar vectors to the ILS 12R at ZZZ1. It appeared no other traffic was around at this hour of the morning. I flew the approach comfortably using the autopilot that was now working but MEL'd. Broke out from the approach and flew VFR to the hospital with out incident. I declared an emergency due to the aircraft was restricted to VFR; and inadvertent IMC. Don't fly the aircraft with a MEL'd autopilot. I don't know what I could have done differently with the weather. All indications were 1;300 ft and clear. Forecast was for 1;500 ft broken. I followed company procedures for deteriorating weather.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BHT-430 pilot inadvertantly entered IMC on a VFR approach and declared an emergency due to the fact that the helicopter was restricted to VFR flight because of an autopilot malfunction. While on an ILS approach coordinated by ATC; pilot broke out into VMC and landed VFR.

Narrative: During a night time IFR flight in VFR conditions autopilot # 1 stopped working; at the destination hospital deferred and MEL'd the autopilot. Aircraft restricted to VFR only. In cruise flight returning with patient I received weather of 1;300 FT on the AWOS at ZZZ1 and clear at ZZZ2. The weather between the two facilities appeared lower. At 700 AGL the flight became inadvertent IMC. I started a climb; declared an emergency with Approach. Approach gave radar vectors to the ILS 12R at ZZZ1. It appeared no other traffic was around at this hour of the morning. I flew the approach comfortably using the autopilot that was now working but MEL'd. Broke out from the approach and flew VFR to the hospital with out incident. I declared an emergency due to the aircraft was restricted to VFR; and inadvertent IMC. Don't fly the aircraft with a MEL'd autopilot. I don't know what I could have done differently with the weather. All indications were 1;300 FT and clear. Forecast was for 1;500 FT broken. I followed company procedures for deteriorating weather.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1015699
Time
Date	201206
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	Marginal
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Bell Helicopter Textron Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 135
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	VFR Route
Component
Aircraft Component	Autopilot
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural FAR Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Bht-430 pilot inadvertantly entered IMC on a VFR approach and declared an emergency due to the fact that the helicopter was restricted to VFR flight because of an autopilot malfunction. While on an ILS approach coordinated by ATC; pilot broke out into VMC and landed VFR.