Narrative:

I performed my online flight briefing the night before and filed two of my three IFR flight plans via duats from home before going to bed. A review of the weather indicated good conditions at home and an expected cloud deck about 5;000 ft at my pickup destination before continuing on to iow in VFR conditions; with the continued possibility of an overcast layer at 5;000 ft. Temperatures were forecast well above freezing; and wind was not a concern. The forecast included a possibility of fog at iow; but it was expected to lift well before my ETA. [Next morning] I left for the airport; pre-flighted and departed to my pickup destination. Weather was as forecast; and I soon found myself on-top at 7000 feet. The arrival into the pickup destination was uneventful. I fueled the aircraft and loaded the four passengers and we departed visually; picking up our clearance airborne from chicago center. Once on our IFR flight plan and cruising at 4;000 ft under the overcast on autopilot; I punched iow into my hand-held garmin GPS 496. At this moment; I noticed the red weather flag on iow. This caught me completely by surprise. Xm weather reported the current conditions at iow as 200 ft overcast and 1 mile visibility. Given the current time; the forecast of lifting fog was incorrect; and I faced the reality that I had just departed without checking the weather at my destination. I also had no alternate listed on my flight plan.I pulled-up the approach plates for iow. The GPS approach has a MDA of 444 ft AGL and a visibility requirement of 1 mile. I make a point of not starting an approach I do not plan to complete; so I decided that unless I had at least a 500 ft ceiling; I would not continue to iow. Using the GPS; the best alternate appeared to be mli; it was along our route of flight and reporting VFR conditions. I continued to monitor the weather at iow until we were 15 minutes from mli. I had also reviewed the approach plates for mli; and was prepared for the ILS 27. I was being controlled by quad city approach and notified them I wanted to divert to mli. Approach cleared me to mli and told me to expect the ILS 27. The landing at mli was uneventful.in retrospect; none of this should have happened. I know better than to takeoff for a destination without reviewing weather; but I did it anyways. The weather en route to my pickup destination was as forecast; and I assumed -- wrongfully so -- that iow's weather was also as forecast. In the end; we were not able to continue to iow; and the passengers ended up renting a car and I returned home. Given today's ease of information acquisition; I cannot excuse my behavior. Two things I did right; however; were to load the maximum allowable fuel; nearly three hours more than required for our trip. Second; as soon as I realized my error; I began alternative planning. Using xm weather; I reviewed the current weather conditions for all airports within a reasonable distance of iow and found mli to be the best choice for an alternate. Once that decision was made; I treated mli as my official alternate and executed that plan once iow was out of the question.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: While airborne using XM weather; a PA32 pilot discovers that his destination is IFR and below minimums. The forecast the night before was for VMC at the ETA and no alternate was filed. Reporter diverts to a suitable alternate.

Narrative: I performed my online flight briefing the night before and filed two of my three IFR flight plans via DUATS from home before going to bed. A review of the weather indicated good conditions at home and an expected cloud deck about 5;000 FT at my pickup destination before continuing on to IOW in VFR conditions; with the continued possibility of an overcast layer at 5;000 FT. Temperatures were forecast well above freezing; and wind was not a concern. The forecast included a possibility of fog at IOW; but it was expected to lift well before my ETA. [Next morning] I left for the airport; pre-flighted and departed to my pickup destination. Weather was as forecast; and I soon found myself on-top at 7000 feet. The arrival into the pickup destination was uneventful. I fueled the aircraft and loaded the four passengers and we departed visually; picking up our clearance airborne from Chicago Center. Once on our IFR flight plan and cruising at 4;000 FT under the overcast on autopilot; I punched IOW into my hand-held Garmin GPS 496. At this moment; I noticed the red weather flag on IOW. This caught me completely by surprise. XM weather reported the current conditions at IOW as 200 FT overcast and 1 mile visibility. Given the current time; the forecast of lifting fog was incorrect; and I faced the reality that I had just departed without checking the weather at my destination. I also had no alternate listed on my flight plan.I pulled-up the approach plates for IOW. The GPS approach has a MDA of 444 FT AGL and a visibility requirement of 1 mile. I make a point of not starting an approach I do not plan to complete; so I decided that unless I had at least a 500 FT ceiling; I would not continue to IOW. Using the GPS; the best alternate appeared to be MLI; it was along our route of flight and reporting VFR conditions. I continued to monitor the weather at IOW until we were 15 minutes from MLI. I had also reviewed the approach plates for MLI; and was prepared for the ILS 27. I was being controlled by Quad City Approach and notified them I wanted to divert to MLI. Approach cleared me to MLI and told me to expect the ILS 27. The landing at MLI was uneventful.In retrospect; none of this should have happened. I know better than to takeoff for a destination without reviewing weather; but I did it anyways. The weather en route to my pickup destination was as forecast; and I assumed -- wrongfully so -- that IOW's weather was also as forecast. In the end; we were not able to continue to IOW; and the passengers ended up renting a car and I returned home. Given today's ease of information acquisition; I cannot excuse my behavior. Two things I did right; however; were to load the maximum allowable fuel; nearly three hours more than required for our trip. Second; as soon as I realized my error; I began alternative planning. Using XM weather; I reviewed the current weather conditions for all airports within a reasonable distance of IOW and found MLI to be the best choice for an alternate. Once that decision was made; I treated MLI as my official alternate and executed that plan once IOW was out of the question.

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.