Narrative:

I was on a solo flight and the temperatures were near freezing (2C). I was flying at 6000 ft. The conditions were VFR broken 20;000 so good visibility. I was on an IFR flight plan so I was in contact with kc center. Everything was smooth. I looked off to the left and noticed the strobe lights reflecting some precipitation. I turned on my landing light and saw rain/sleet/flurries coming at me. So I called ATC and asked for lower. I went down to 4000 ft. The precipitation was still coming and I asked for lower again; so I went down to 3000 ft. At this point ATC lost radar contact because I was too low. The precip was still there and I wasn't going to go any lower. So I started thinking about either turning around or diverting. Fortunately effingham's city lights were right in front of me. I definitely had to make some quick decisions. I called up ATC; requested a diversion. Moments later after I requested to divert the precip intensified and it felt like I was in a blizzard. The visibility dropped rapidly from like 10nm to 3nm and the precip increased. In retrospect I believe I hit a small cell. But anyways the precip was increasing and the visibility decreasing; I asked ATC for vectors but they couldn't give any because of the size of the airport so I ended up doing the GPS 11 approach. The ATC controller wanted me to do the full procedure; but in that situation I didn't have time to stay out and accumulate icing; so I turned for the FAF (final approach fix) and told the controller. The controller cleared me for the approach and then I had a normal landing.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C172 pilot reported encountering rain; sleet; and icing enroute. He made some quick decisions that included diverting to exit the weather and a modified instrument approach to minimize his time in the icing.

Narrative: I was on a solo flight and the temperatures were near freezing (2C). I was flying at 6000 ft. The conditions were VFR BKN 20;000 so good visibility. I was on an IFR flight plan so I was in contact with KC Center. Everything was smooth. I looked off to the left and noticed the strobe lights reflecting some precipitation. I turned on my landing light and saw rain/sleet/flurries coming at me. So I called ATC and asked for lower. I went down to 4000 ft. The precipitation was still coming and I asked for lower again; so I went down to 3000 ft. At this point ATC LOST RADAR CONTACT because I was too low. The precip was still there and I wasn't going to go any lower. So I started thinking about either turning around or diverting. Fortunately Effingham's city lights were right in front of me. I definitely had to make some quick decisions. I called up ATC; requested a diversion. Moments later after I requested to divert the precip intensified and it felt like I was in a blizzard. The visibility dropped rapidly from like 10nm to 3nm and the precip increased. In retrospect I believe I hit a small cell. But anyways the precip was increasing and the visibility decreasing; I asked ATC for vectors but they couldn't give any because of the size of the airport so I ended up doing the GPS 11 approach. The ATC controller wanted me to do the full procedure; but in that situation I didn't have time to stay out and accumulate icing; so I turned for the FAF (final approach fix) and told the controller. The controller cleared me for the approach and then I had a normal landing.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.