Private pilot reports encountering unforecast clouds at his level during an east bound flight throug...

Narrative:

I had a weather briefing and xm weather in the plane. The weather was clear at departure and arrival airports with scattered clouds in the new york city area. I believe the broken or scattered layer was said to be at 5;000 ft. Icing conditions existed from pireps as low as 7;000 ft and I think as low as 3;000 by airmet. Flying VFR with advisories from LOM to ZZZ direct and cleared into the new york bravo at 5;500. I requested lower to maintain VFR and was cleared to 4;500. I saw more clouds ahead but they were scattered at roughly my altitude. N90 TRACON advised me of airbus traffic coming down the hudson at 4;000 and 11 o'clock. No contact. A second traffic awareness call was made notifying me of traffic now at 10 o'clock (can't remember a distance.) that time I spotted the aircraft at my 9 o'clock. At the same time I had to deal with the clouds now right in front of me. I could tell the situation was developing and there was no other option to maintain VFR. I asked for lower to maintain VFR again. I needed about another 300 ft to maintain clear of clouds. I descended to 4;200 ft maintaining visual separation from the traffic. N90 TRACON asked me to call them from the ground when I arrived at my destination. I called them and talked through the scenario with them. The other aircraft turned out to be a boeing 767 I believe. I am not sure what I could have done differently. N90 TRACON said that the aircraft TCAS went off in the cockpit and he was startled. I do not know if he ever saw me but I watched him the entire time pass behind me. Maybe there was another option but turning away from the traffic I would not be able to see him; turning toward the traffic would have closed the gap. I did not start a descent until I was sure I saw the traffic because we were only vertically separated by 500 ft. Once I saw him I knew it was clear to descend and stay out of the clouds. I believe the other pilot was shaken up and I am not sure what could have been done more safely.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Private pilot reports encountering unforecast clouds at his level during an east bound flight through the New York Class B at 5;500 FT. A clearance to 4;500 FT is obtained but lower clouds necessitate a further descent to 4;200 FT causing a TCAS event with a B767 on arrival.

Narrative: I had a weather briefing and XM weather in the plane. The weather was clear at departure and arrival airports with scattered clouds in the New York City area. I believe the broken or scattered layer was said to be at 5;000 FT. Icing conditions existed from PIREPs as low as 7;000 FT and I think as low as 3;000 by AIRMET. Flying VFR with advisories from LOM to ZZZ direct and cleared into the New York Bravo at 5;500. I requested lower to maintain VFR and was cleared to 4;500. I saw more clouds ahead but they were scattered at roughly my altitude. N90 TRACON advised me of Airbus traffic coming down the Hudson at 4;000 and 11 o'clock. No contact. A second traffic awareness call was made notifying me of traffic now at 10 o'clock (can't remember a distance.) That time I spotted the aircraft at my 9 o'clock. At the same time I had to deal with the clouds now right in front of me. I could tell the situation was developing and there was no other option to maintain VFR. I asked for lower to maintain VFR again. I needed about another 300 FT to maintain clear of clouds. I descended to 4;200 FT maintaining visual separation from the traffic. N90 TRACON asked me to call them from the ground when I arrived at my destination. I called them and talked through the scenario with them. The other aircraft turned out to be a Boeing 767 I believe. I am not sure what I could have done differently. N90 TRACON said that the aircraft TCAS went off in the cockpit and he was startled. I do not know if he ever saw me but I watched him the entire time pass behind me. Maybe there was another option but turning away from the traffic I would not be able to see him; turning toward the traffic would have closed the gap. I did not start a descent until I was sure I saw the traffic because we were only vertically separated by 500 FT. Once I saw him I knew it was clear to descend and stay out of the clouds. I believe the other pilot was shaken up and I am not sure what could have been done more safely.

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	1062254
Time
Date	201301
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	EWR.Airport
State Reference	NJ
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	M-5
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	None
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	B767 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30 Flight Crew Total 1460 Flight Crew Type 1460
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Airborne Conflict Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Miss Distance	Horizontal 5280 Vertical 200

Private pilot reports encountering unforecast clouds at his level during an east bound flight through the new york class B at 5;500 ft. A clearance to 4;500 ft is obtained but lower clouds necessitate a further descent to 4;200 ft causing a TCAS event with a B767 on arrival.