Narrative:

Conditions at takeoff: ceiling broken at 7;000; scattered at 200 to 600 ft; visibility 10 SM.: runway 20 active: wind 180 degrees at 8 kt. I had not flown in six months and wanted to re-familiarize myself with the cessna 152. The weather was cloudy with a 1 degree C difference between air temperature and dew point. There were one or two planes in the pattern doing touch and goes on runway 20. I decided the weather was within my skill levels for the local flight I had planned.ATC ground instructed me to taxi to 20. Just before I got to the hold line the tower said I was cleared for an expedited takeoff (my words) with a departure to the southeast rather than the requested south because there was an IFR flight making an approach on runway 2 (opposite end of 20). I acknowledged the clearance and made my takeoff. As I climbed up through 200 feet AGL I was startled at the bad visibility. By the time I got to 500 feet AGL I didn't want to climb anymore for fear of loosing sight of the ground. I thought I had started a slow turn to the southeast but in a later phone conversation with tower personnel I had turned to the southwest. I cannot deny this because I was really distracted by the poor visibility. I was making a turn to the southeast when the plane making the IFR approach on 2 came into view to my left; approximately 100 ft above and approximately 200 away. We both took evasive action banking to our respective right. I do not think we would have collided if evasive action had not been taken.I contacted the tower and requested a return for landing as I did not wish to continue in the poor visibly conditions that prevailed. I had become disorientated. The tower stayed in contact with me until I was able to fix my position. I was eventually able to climb to 800 AGL but felt the visibility was too poor to climb above that. I was able to land without further incident. From engine start up to engine shut down .5 hour of hobbs time elapsed.contributing factors: 1) my failure to make a 65 degree turn after takeoff and allowing myself to become too distracted by visual conditions. 2) ATC allowing an IFR approach on the opposite end of an active runway (20) 3) the spotty poor visibility conditions were not evident from the ground other than the AWOS report of scattered clouds at 200.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C152 pilot reported a NMAC after departure with an opposite direction IFR arrival.

Narrative: Conditions at takeoff: Ceiling broken at 7;000; scattered at 200 to 600 ft; visibility 10 SM.: Runway 20 active: Wind 180 degrees at 8 kt. I had not flown in six months and wanted to re-familiarize myself with the Cessna 152. The weather was cloudy with a 1 degree C difference between air temperature and dew point. There were one or two planes in the pattern doing touch and goes on runway 20. I decided the weather was within my skill levels for the local flight I had planned.ATC ground instructed me to taxi to 20. Just before I got to the hold line the tower said I was cleared for an expedited takeoff (my words) with a departure to the southeast rather than the requested south because there was an IFR flight making an approach on runway 2 (opposite end of 20). I acknowledged the clearance and made my takeoff. As I climbed up through 200 feet AGL I was startled at the bad visibility. By the time I got to 500 feet AGL I didn't want to climb anymore for fear of loosing sight of the ground. I thought I had started a slow turn to the SE but in a later phone conversation with tower personnel I had turned to the SW. I cannot deny this because I was really distracted by the poor visibility. I was making a turn to the SE when the plane making the IFR approach on 2 came into view to my left; approximately 100 ft above and approximately 200 away. We both took evasive action banking to our respective right. I do not think we would have collided if evasive action had not been taken.I contacted the tower and requested a return for landing as I did not wish to continue in the poor visibly conditions that prevailed. I had become disorientated. The tower stayed in contact with me until I was able to fix my position. I was eventually able to climb to 800 AGL but felt the visibility was too poor to climb above that. I was able to land without further incident. From engine start up to engine shut down .5 hour of Hobbs time elapsed.Contributing factors: 1) my failure to make a 65 degree turn after takeoff and allowing myself to become too distracted by visual conditions. 2) ATC allowing an IFR approach on the opposite end of an active runway (20) 3) the spotty poor visibility conditions were not evident from the ground other than the AWOS report of scattered clouds at 200.

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.