Narrative:

I am a recently certified private pilot with about 95 hours total flight time. I had my 10 year old daughter on board. I have a PA28-140 cherokee equipped with VOR and a garmin 496 GPS with weather subscription. I noticed some precipitation on the GPS in the area of my destination on takeoff. As I progressed further in my trip; I noticed some of the green areas of precipitation on the GPS turning blue; signifying snow. When I reached the va/md state line; I saw the area of my destination airport turn blue and grow larger. The visibility ahead was noticeably diminishing. It also was getting close to dusk. I was receiving flight following from pxt approach at the time. I heard 1 aircraft advise he wanted a lower altitude and I heard another aircraft advise that he was diverting. I made the decision to divert to a nearby airport. I pushed the button on the garmin that would bring up nearby airports and found xsa and 2w6. I began heading to 2w6 because it was ahead of me when I decided that I was unfamiliar with that airport and had made landing at xsa both at night and during the day when I was a student pilot. I then turned around and headed towards xsa which the GPS said was 10 miles away. By now; the visibility was decreasing at an alarming rate. I could feel my mouth getting dry and the 10 miles to xsa seemed like an eternity. The winds were calm at xsa and I entered the downwind leg for runway 10. I had already activated the runway lights. I landed without event and within 20 minutes the weather closed in with light rain. I had never been so glad to be on the ground. I remember looking at the GPS before I shut it down and the whole area around my airport was blue. I learned a valuable lesson about the weather that day. All day the inclement weather had been predicted to come in much later than it did. My daughter and I received a ride into town from an aircraft owner at the airport where we got a hotel room for the evening. That evening; father and daughter spent a wonderful evening going to the movies and dinner in an unfamiliar town. The next morning the aircraft was covered with ice and the runway had black ice according to the airport manager. The weather was calling for 40 mph gusting winds which were way beyond my personal minimums.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Private pilot of PA28 diverts to nearby airport when weather deteriorates.

Narrative: I am a recently certified Private pilot with about 95 hours total flight time. I had my 10 year old daughter on board. I have a PA28-140 Cherokee equipped with VOR and a Garmin 496 GPS with weather subscription. I noticed some precipitation on the GPS in the area of my destination on takeoff. As I progressed further in my trip; I noticed some of the green areas of precipitation on the GPS turning blue; signifying snow. When I reached the VA/MD state line; I saw the area of my destination airport turn blue and grow larger. The visibility ahead was noticeably diminishing. It also was getting close to dusk. I was receiving Flight Following from PXT Approach at the time. I heard 1 aircraft advise he wanted a lower altitude and I heard another aircraft advise that he was diverting. I made the decision to divert to a nearby airport. I pushed the button on the Garmin that would bring up nearby airports and found XSA and 2W6. I began heading to 2W6 because it was ahead of me when I decided that I was unfamiliar with that airport and had made landing at XSA both at night and during the day when I was a student pilot. I then turned around and headed towards XSA which the GPS said was 10 miles away. By now; the visibility was decreasing at an alarming rate. I could feel my mouth getting dry and the 10 miles to XSA seemed like an eternity. The winds were calm at XSA and I entered the downwind leg for Runway 10. I had already activated the runway lights. I landed without event and within 20 minutes the weather closed in with light rain. I had never been so glad to be on the ground. I remember looking at the GPS before I shut it down and the whole area around my airport was blue. I learned a valuable lesson about the weather that day. All day the inclement weather had been predicted to come in much later than it did. My daughter and I received a ride into town from an aircraft owner at the airport where we got a hotel room for the evening. That evening; father and daughter spent a wonderful evening going to the movies and dinner in an unfamiliar town. The next morning the aircraft was covered with ice and the runway had black ice according to the airport manager. The weather was calling for 40 MPH gusting winds which were way beyond my personal minimums.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of May 2009 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.